Including gains brought by acquisitions, more than 5.1 million customers worldwide joined Vodafone during the final three months of 2003. International growth rates were helped by the buyout of Greek operator Vodafone-Panafon Hellenic Telecommunications Company SA, and the strong performance in Italy and Germany, where annual ARPU figures rose to 359 euros ($451) and 311 euros ($391) respectively. In the UK, ARPU figures for the year to December rose to 299 pounds ($546).
Customer revenues in the UK were boosted by Vodafone’s 406m pound ($742m) takeover of mobile service provider Singlepoint 4U Ltd, a company that managed 1.9 million contract phone customers, including 1.5 million on the Vodafone network.
The group’s Vodafone live! picture-based service also racked up its millionth UK customer during the quarter. Worldwide Vodafone live! customers increased to 4.5 million. Vodafone live! is currently available in 15 countries. In addition, the group has a further 12.8 million Vodafone live! customers in Japan, following the rebranding of J-Sky in October 2003.
Companies such as Nokia and Carphone Warehouse, a UK-based mobile handset retailer, reported large handset sales in the past quarter, with analysts predicting that Vodafone will take a large share of new customers entering the sector after heavy promotional activities across Europe.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
