Vodafone has called a halt to its frantic acquisition spree, saying it would focus this year on the delayed launch of faster mobile Internet phones and growing its profit margins.
The world's largest mobile operator announced results towards the top end of recently reduced forecasts for the year to March 31st.
Earnings rose 28 per cent to £7.04 billion sterling.
But the group slumped to a pre-tax loss of £8.10 billion, from a £1.35 billion profit a year ago, after charges of £11.88 billion related to acquisitions.
After more than two years of buying operators around the world, chief executive Mr Chris Gent said he did not expect to move the company into any new countries in the current year.
Mr Gent said he expected an overhang of shares issued to finance previous acquisitions - which analysts say is capping Vodafone's stock price - to disappear in a few months.
The expansion freeze coincides with sweeping changes in mobile phone technology, starting with the faster wireless Internet services of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) handsets this year.
Mr Gent said Vodafone would launch the phones in September or October, in time for the Christmas market, with pay-as-you-go GPRS following in early 2002. The launch has been delayed because of handset shortages.
GPRS, which offers "always-on" connection to the Internet and faster download speeds than current WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) phones, is a stepping stone to third-generation services that have cost the industry more than euro billion in licence fee payments.
Mr Gent said Vodafone would spend around £10 billion on 3G networks over the next five years. Total capital expenditure this year would be around five billion pounds, of which a third would go on 3G. It would spend similar amounts in the subsequent two years.