Eircell Vodafone delivered unadjusted earnings of £76 million sterling (€124 million) in its first contribution to mobile phone giant Vodafone's interim results on turnover of £197 million. The firm yesterday posted losses of £8.45 billion (€14 billion) on turnover of £8.9 billion.

Vodafone's core profits rose to £4.8 billion in the first six months of the year but the group has had to write off £4.75 billion mainly against its takeover of the German Mannesmann group last year. The firm, with 95 million subscribers in 28 countries, also paid €4.5 billion (£3.5 billion) for Eircell, the largest mobile operator on the island during the period under review. Vodafone said yesterday Eircell's customer base exceeded 1.6 million people. It also confirmed that Eircell Vodafone was expected to participate in the tendering process for a 3G licence once the award process has been finalised. Vodafone also plans to introduce a GPRS service in Ireland next January.

The firm's latest results for the six months to the end of September 2001 reflect the cost of its aggressive acquisition strategy.