Vodafone adds 1.3 million customers worldwide

Vodafone says it added 1.3 million customers worldwide in the first quarter of this year.

The company achieved customer growth of 22% during the year to March 31.

This resulted in it having a worldwide customer base of 101.1 million.

Germany and the UK were strong performers, with the percentage of contract customers rising from 40% to 43% and from 35% to 38% respectively.

Chief executive Sir Christopher Gent says: "This year has seen ARPU (average revenue per user) stabilise in our major markets, ahead of our previous expectations, even though customer growth has been better than anticipated.

"The improvement in mix towards higher quality customers and the continued adoption of data services provide a solid base for an expected improvement in ARPU in most of our major European markets in the year ahead."

In the UK, Newbury-based Vodafone won 22,000 new customers during the fourth quarter - bringing its subscriber base up to 13.2 million.