Vodafone Ireland has reported service revenue for the first quarter of €235.1 million, growing on an underlying basis by 1.1 per cent year on year.
It now has 264,000 fixed broadband customers, up 1.5 per cent on the previous quarter and 6.9 per cent year on year.
“We continue to grow the business, expanding customer numbers across both fixed and mobile,” said Anne O’Leary, chief executive of Vodafone Ireland.
The communications company said it had gained an additional 20,000 mobile contract customers during the period and now has more than 1.25 million 4G smartphones on its network, a rise of 21.4 per cent on the same period last year.
During the quarter, Vodafone Ireland unveiled a €120 million business and IT transformation programme and, together with SIRO, launched its national Gigabit Hub Initiative which offers a 1Gb broadband connection to qualifying business, technology and start-up hubs free of charge for two years across 15 towns.
The initiative has the potential to significantly strengthen and grow thousands of jobs across Ireland, it said in a statement on Friday.
“We also continue to focus our attention on supporting the regions and promoting local job growth as we roll out our Gigabit Hub Initiative with further location announcements coming in the next quarter,” Ms O’Leary said.
Vodafone Ireland has also highlighted its unique status in the market for providing customers with roaming across 32 European destinations at no extra cost.
Its €120 million infrastructure investment in Ireland provides for converged product and billing capabilities with a full omni-channel experience covering fixed, broadband, TV and mobile, it said.
Global results
The world's second-largest mobile operator reported better-than-expected 2.2 per cent revenue growth in its first quarter, reflecting a robust performance in Italy and Spain and an acceleration in demand in Turkey.
The company said the rise in organic service revenue, which was ahead of market forecasts of 1.4 to 1.9 per cent, boosted its confidence in the outlook for the full year, when it expects to grow core earnings by 4 to 8 per cent.
The British operator also expects cash flow to jump this year, enabling it to increase dividends, as it eases back on network investment, improves efficiency and tackles intense competition in India by merging with a rival.
Chief executive Vittorio Colao said the group had made a good start to the year in Europe, helped by demand for data packages and broadband, and growth had accelerated in its African, Middle East and Asia Pacific markets.
Areas of weakness remained in Europe, however. Growth in Germany halved to 0.6 per cent, from 1.2 per cent in the previous quarter, and although its performance in its problematic British market improved, it was still down 2.7 per cent.
“Overall, this performance gives us confidence in reiterating our outlook for the year,” he said on Friday.
– Additional reporting Reuters
