Vodafone numbers decline by 34,000

Vodafone Ireland saw its Irish mobile customer base fall by 34,000 in the second quarter of the year, bringing its total to slightly more than 2.1m mobile customers in the Irish market.

Despite the losses, Vodafone retained its place as the country’s largest mobile provider.

However, the company also experienced a 2% year-on-year decrease in the revenue per customer generated in the second quarter of this year.

The results from its Irish operations come amid continuing struggles for Vodafone worldwide, particularly in Europe but chief executive, Vittorio Colao believes the company is performing as expected.

“The year has started in line with our expectations. Through our commercial actions and investment, our performance is beginning to stabilise quarter-on-quarter in several of our European markets, with customer appetite for 4G services clearly growing,” said Mr Colao.

The English-based company’s service revenue fell by 4.2% overall in the quarter, with Italy showing the largest decrease.

In Ireland, the continued increase in the number of smartphone users contributed to a substantial year-on-year increase in data usage; up 45% from a year ago.

Vodafone Ireland attributed the increase largely to the success of its Vodafone Red price plan which offers customers unlimited calls, texts and generous data allowances — 395,000 Vodafone Ireland customers had signed up to Vodafone Red by the end of the quarter.

The company is also continuing its network upgrade in Ireland with upgrades commenced in Dublin, Galway City, Limerick City and the east coast during the period.

Vodafone Ireland and ESB signed a joint venture agreement to invest €450m in building a 100% fibre-to-the-building broadband network that will offer speeds of up to 1,000Mbps. Seventy-five additional staff were also hired in the quarter.