Vodafone Ireland acquired 68,000 new customers (9,000 post pay and 59,000 pre pay) during the three-month period to 31 December 2003, bringing its total customer base to 1,871,000. This represents the addition of over 142,000 new customers in the past year.
The figures were contained in Vodafone’s Key Performance Indicators released this morning.
Average revenues per user (ARPU) for pre pay customers, measured on a 12-month rolling basis, grew to €361, up from €354 in the last quarter. For contract customers, the 12-month rolling ARPU increased to €1,116, up from €1,109 in the last quarter. Blended ARPU (pre-paid plus post-paid) was €582, up from €576 in the last quarter. Data as a percentage of service revenues increased to 20.5pc for the year to end December 2003. Data in the month of December 2003 was 22.2pc, the highest recorded to date, as Vodafone Ireland’s voice and data usage levels continue to lead the group’s European operations. The data volumes would have been boosted significantly by Vodafone’s free picture messaging campaign held throughout December 2003 and into January 2004. This enabled customers to send free MMS to friends and family with camera phones on either the Vodafone or O2 networks.
Commenting on Vodafone Ireland’s performance, Paul Donovan, CEO, Vodafone Ireland, said: “The figures announced today emphasise Vodafone’s strong position in the Irish marketplace and reflect a very successful quarter, including a particularly good Christmas. We are seeing augmented usage of MMS, ringtones and other data services by our customers and an ever-increasing Vodafone live! community of customers.”
The quarter saw Vodafone introduce an Ireland-wide tariff which enables users roaming on the Vodafone network in Northern Ireland to make calls to both mobile and landline numbers in the Republic at their standard call rate. It also launched its new wireless office service for business customers, which allows users to integrate fixed and mobile telephony.
By Brian Skelly
