European activities place Vodafone results under pressure

Vodafone has released an interim financial statement and said that its third-fiscal quarter revenues to end-December 2012 fell by 2.6 per cent compared to the previous year to £11.39 billion (US$17.8 billion), primarily due to falls in Italy, UK and Spain.

Vittorio Colao, CEO, commented: "Our results continue to reflect very difficult market conditions in Europe. We are addressing this through firm actions on cost efficiency, and continuing to invest in areas of growth potential."

In Turkey service revenue grew by 18.4 per cent driven by strong growth in data and enterprise, and the continued expansion of the contract customer base.

In India service revenue was up 9.0 per cent with the benefits of a more stable competitive environment offset by the impact of new subscriber verification rules and regulations relating to messaging and processing fees.

Service revenue growth at Vodacom slowed to 1.9 per cent reflecting competitive pricing pressures and a lower level of customer additions, offset by continued strong growth in the international businesses.

Despite continued macroeconomic and political uncertainty service revenue in Egypt grew by 3.1 per cent with a continued increase in the take-up of data services.

Group data revenue grew by 12.8 per cent to £1.7 billion and now accounts for 16.2 per cent of Group service revenue. 33.4 per cent of the telco’s European customers now use smartphones, compared to 24.4 per cent at December 2011.