Vodafone’s mobile base in Ireland now stands at 2.1 million people and as a result of its fixed-line infrastructure deal with BT includes 186,000 DSL broadband users, the company said this morning.
In its results for 2009, Vodafone in Ireland added 35,000 new customers across fixed and mobile. Vodafone’s bill-paying base now stands at 869,000 users.
The company became a fully-fledged fixed-line provider last year after concluding a breakthrough deal with BT that saw the transfer of €4.8 million worth of assets to Vodafone and gave the mobile operator access BT’s 22 unbundled local exchanges around Ireland, as well as BT’s consumer telephone and broadband base of 84,000 consumers, as well as 3,000 small businesses.
The year 2009 for Vodafone
During 2009, Vodafone saw strong momentum in postpay services in the last quarter with net customer additions of 20,000 driven by the success of Vodafone Simply and Wireless Office Control. Vodafone remained No 1 for prepay services with 1.46 million prepay customers on the network.
Vodafone continued to deliver on its fixed-line DSL strategy with an increase of 9,000 customers in the quarter, nearly double the rate of growth in the previous quarter, highlighting the momentum behind Vodafone in the fixed-line market.
The company also added more than 11,000 mobile broadband customers in the quarter, bringing Vodafone’s total broadband base to 278,000. Vodafone is the second-largest broadband provider in Ireland by a clear margin and is continuing to grow rapidly in the total broadband market.
Vodafone Ireland’s customers maintained a steady consumption of voice minutes and texts in this quarter, demonstrating how customers are recognising the value of the services despite the difficult economic climate.
Vodafone’s quarter at the end of 2009
In the quarter ended 31 December, 2009, Vodafone customers increased their voice minutes of use by 1.3pc to 260 per customer and increased the number of texts they sent by 8.6pc to 199 per customer, compared to the previous quarter.
Vodafone Ireland’s customers’ consumption of voice minutes and texts remained higher than the Vodafone Europe average of 154 voice minutes and 90 text messages per customer for this quarter.
Total texts sent in the quarter increased by 18.8pc to 1.27 billion while total voice minutes declined by 1.9pc to 1.62 billion compared to the same quarter the previous year. Average mobile blended quarterly ARPU decreased by 7.7pc to €37.40 in the same period.
“Vodafone has delivered value savings of 22pc to existing customers in the last 12 months. We had a very strong Christmas period during which time we attracted an additional 35,000 customers to Vodafone,” said strategy director Gerry Fahy.
Worldwide, Vodafone revenues increased 10.3pc to stg£11.5 billion and group data revenue exceeded stg£1 billion for the first time, up 17.7pc year-on-year.
By John Kennedy
