Vodafone Group's underlying full-year pretax profits were little changed from a year earlier, but it warned that market conditions in Europe would remain challenging for the year ahead.
The mobile operator said it has met or exceeded its expectations for the year in all areas, and it is confident of delivering its capital and operating expenditure targets in Europe in fiscal 2008.
In Ireland, Vodafone said its customer numbers fell slightly in the three months to the end of March to 2,177,000, a fall of around 1,000 customers. However, year on year customer numbers are up 102,000.
The company said monthly average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) was €44.60, a fall of 8.2 per cent compared with the same period last year.
According to Vodafone Irish customers averaged 222 minutes voice minutes a month, compared with its European average of 142minutes.
Vodafone's chief executive Arun Sarin said pricing pressure is expected to remain strong in the year ahead.
The company also said today that its core cost reduction initiatives are well on track. Vodafone's underlying pretax profit eased back to £8.75 billion from £8.79 billion.
Including impairment charges of £11.6 billion, the pre-tax figure came in at a loss of billion 2.4 billion, compared with a loss including exceptionals of £14.9 billion a year earlier.
For the year ahead, the company forecast revenues in the range of £33.3 billion to £34.1 billion n, with adjusted operating profit of £9.3 billion to £9.8 billion.
Capital expenditure on fixed assets is expected to be in the range of £4.7 billion to £5.1 billion, including more than £1 billion in India. Free cash flow is expected to be £4.0 billion to £4.5 billion.
Vodafone increased its total dividend by 11.4 per cent to 6.76 pence, with a final dividend of 4.41 pence.