Vodafone won 4.3 million new customers worldwide in the fourth quarter bringing its total subscriber base to 130.4 million.
In Ireland Vodafone said it won 68,000 customers in the fourth quarter of 2003 bringing the Irish total to 1.87 million.
The company's key average revenue per user (ARPU) for Ireland was €582 for the whole of 2003, making the Irish market among the most lucrative worldwide. This compares with £303 sterling in Britain and €311 in Germany.
In Japan, ARPU slipped to 82,917 yen ($783.20) as the company rebrands. Data revenues, generated mainly by text messages, increased to 15.9 per cent of Vodafone's service revenue from 13.9 per cent.
"The customer figures are strong. ARPU is pretty much stable and data is showing good progress," said Mr Damien Chew, analyst at ING Financial Markets, who rates the stock a buy.
However, some analysts question the cost to margins of a buoyant Christmas. Nomura warns that full-year profit expectations might prove hard to beat when the group reports earnings in May.