Vodafone, the world's largest mobile telecommunications company, has admitted using accounting techniques that inflate revenues, according to a report in the Financial Timesthis morning.
According to the report, Vodafone admitted yesterday that it had entered all revenues from wireless Internet services as turnover even when a portion was paid to a third party as part of a content sharing deal.
The company, however, defended the practice and said it looked at every revenue sharing deal on a case-by-case basis.
Only where it collected payments from mobile phone uses did it book payments made to third parties the company said, according to the report.
While Vodafone’s accounting practices complies with UK regulations and standards, some analysts expressed surprise at the operator’s stance, pointing out that it could flatter the group’s average revenue per user figures, the report added.
Yesterday, announced its first quarter results which show an increase in its customer base to 103.9 million users, an increase of 1.4 million over the quarter.
Earnings per customer(ARPU) was also reported to be up as were revenues from data services by 14 per cent.