Foreign worker exodus hits Vodafone

VODAFONE Ireland has seen its total customer base slip in the last year from 2.33 million to 2.26 million – as foreign workers return home.

The dip is being attributed mainly to the downturn in the economy and foreigners leaving Ireland to return to their native countries.

The total subscriber figure features mobile phone, fixed-line and mobile broadband custom. People reassessing their personal budgets in the current economic climate and the rising levels of unemployment also played a part – as did natural churn, where people switch their providers.

“We felt the effect of foreign migrants leaving Ireland acutely as we made a specific effort to target them through own-language advertisements and promotional activity when the population started to grow and got a lot of new custom on the back of that,” said Vodafone Ireland’s director of strategy, Gerry Fahy.

“During the last year, Vodafone has delivered overall price reductions of approximately 18% to customers compared to a year ago. In the last quarter this has intensified as more than 80% of Vodafone-to-Vodafone calls were free to pre-pay customers,” added the Irish operation’s chief financial officer John Kent.

In the 12 months to the end of March average revenue per user (ARPU) fell by 6% to €39.10, but text sending increased by 16% to 1.09 messages from Vodafone customers.

On a group basis, Vodafone yesterday reported strong results for the year to the end of March – showing a 15.6% rise in revenues to £41 billion (€46.7bn), a 37.4% increase in earnings per share to 17.17p and a 16.7% jump in operating profits to £11.8bn.

However, a forecast for flat operating profits in the current financial year (between £11bn and £11.8bn) will herald a cost cutting round, but not in Ireland.