COMPETITIVE PRESSURES pushed down Vodafone Ireland’s average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) during the final three months of 2008, the company said yesterday.

The telecoms operator reported a 7.5 per cent drop in ARPU to €40.60 for the three months to the end of December compared with €43.90 over the same period last year.

There was no growth in its mobile subscriber base of 2.23 million but Vodafone Ireland said subscribers to its mobile broadband service exceeded 102,000 by the end of December, up around 8,000 on the second quarter.

The company’s fixed-line voice and broadband customer numbers have also increased, to 80,149, bringing its total telecoms customer base to 2.31 million at the end of 2008.

On average, Irish customers spoke for 253 minutes and sent 160 messages in the third quarter, well in excess of the European average of 148 voice minutes and 77 text messages.

In the run-up to Christmas, Vodafone Ireland said the BlackBerry Storm was the highest selling mobile handset.

Shares in parent Vodafone group rose by more than 7 per cent in London yesterday afternoon, hitting 137.35p after the world’s largest mobile phone group by sales increased its full-year guidance due to favourable foreign exchange movements.

The mobile company beat its third-quarter revenue forecasts and said customers are using their mobiles more despite the downturn. The group posted a 14.3 per cent increase in revenues to £10.47 billion, boosted by exchange rates. Organic revenues were down 1 per cent.

The use of mobile data to send e-mails, pictures and to access the internet was up 25.3 per cent on an organic basis.