Vodafone sees drop in Irish mobile customers

Mobile phone giant Vodafone today said it lost 46,000 Irish mobile customers in the three months to the end of June.

Vodafone said lower discretionary spending meant customers were increasingly looking to squeeze benefits from packaged phone tariffs, while the company also reported lower pre-paid activity and revenues from overseas roaming.

This was partly offset by good growth in data revenues, mainly from mobile internet services, and higher wholesale revenues.

Across the group, Vodafone said first-quarter revenues rose 9.3% to £10.74bn (€12.5bn) as the firm reaffirmed guidance for its full-year results. Shares were up by more than 2% following the update.

Further specific figures on Vodafone's Irish customer base will be available later this morning.

Overall trading was boosted by currency movements and the company’s additional stake in South African arm Vodacom.

Vodafone also said cost savings of £650m (€757m), from a target of £1bn (€1.2bn) by 2011, will be made by the end of the year, as the company battles recession in Europe and a saturated market place.

On Wednesday this week, BT Ireland announced it was to transfer its consumer and small business broadband customers, as well as its voice telephone customers, to Vodafone under an agreement between the two telecoms companies.

The deal covers 84,000 customers and 3,000 small businesses. Vodafone says the deal, which is subject to Competition Authority approval, will make it the number two player in the Irish fixed line broadband market after eircom.

Vodafone has also been linked to a potential move to snap up rival T-Mobile UK and take pole position in the British mobile phone market.

The telecoms giant is thought to be mulling a bid for Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile operations in the UK or a possible joint venture tie-up.

Such a move would give Vodafone a 40% share of the market by revenues and a near 50% share by customer numbers, with some 35 million subscribers.

The sector is already consolidating where possible to cut costs and Vodafone’s chief executive Vittorio Colao recently said his company was willing to play an active role in such moves between operators.

Sales are also under pressure in Germany and Spain, following declines of 4.8% and 8.1% respectively during the quarter to June 30.