Vodafone 3G passes half million mark - UPDATE

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 29 May 2007 16:04

IT Industry - Deals

Vodafone Australia has reported service revenue growth of 13.7 percent year-on-year for the quarter ended 31 Marc 2007, and taken the number of 3G devices on its network past the half million mark.

In the quarter it added 89,000 (excluding MVNO customers), to give a total increase of 190,000 direct customers during FY06-07. The company finished FY0607 with 3.367 million direct customers and 308,000 MVNO customers, bringing the total number of customers connected to Vodafone Australia to more than 3.6 million. EBITDA for the quarter was up 20 percent year-on -year.

At year end it had more than 529,000 3G devices connected to its network, up from 450,000 at the end of December 2006. Full-year ARPU for FY0607 up 6.0 percent on FY0506 and prepay ARPU for FY0607 increased by 12.7 percent year-on-year, postpaid by 3.3 percent year-on-year with encouraging growth in high-value contract customer acquisition · Voice usage maintained solid growth with 2,222 million minutes recorded in Q4 0607, with the FY0607 voice usage representing a 16.4 percent increase on FY0506.

In its results for the year to 31 March, Optus reported that it had added 60,000 new mobile customers in the quarter to 31 March, taking its total to 6.74 million, 445,000 of which were on its 3G network. Telstra, in its results for the half year to 30 December, claimed to have added 12 and 13 times as many postpaid services in the second quarter as Vodafone and Optus respectively, taking its total subscriber numbers to 8.89 million, up 363,000 in the half.

At Hutchison's AGM earlier this year CEO, Nigel Dews, said the company had 1.3 million subscribers (all on 3G) and had added 590,000 in calendar 2006. Hutchison has been operating 3G services longer than any other carrier in Australia, it launched in April 2003.

In its latest results Vodafone boasted about its "exceptional prepaid performance and sustained increases in service revenue." Vodafone offered no breakdown of new adds between prepaid and contract, but in its results for the prior quarter it highlighted its success in boosting contract customers at the expense of prepaid, reporting that net additions of contract customers were 35.2 percent up on the prior quarter.

Vodafone's head of corporate communications, Greg Spears, told iTWire at the time that the figures reflected the results of a decision taken in late 2005 to shift focus on consumer sales from prepaid to contract. "People really like those zero dollar handsets, and the only way we can offer those is on contract," he said.

Commenting on the latest results, CEO, Russell Hewitt, said: "There was no silver bullet in 0607. Our success was predicated on a terrific handset range that is accessible and affordable. We've played to our strengths by offering high-value capped plans and concentrating on getting the end-to-end customer experience right."