Vodafone Plc, the world?s largest mobile service provider by revenue, on Tuesday announced a 19.1% jump in its quarterly revenue for the quarter ended June 2008. At ?9.8 billion however, the company’s revenue has been below expectations, owing to economic slowdown and a decrease in equipment revenue.
The firm registered more than 50% total revenue growth in India. Its revenues were propelled by growth in Asia. Arun Sarin, the outgoing CEO of Vodafone said, ?Notwithstanding the more challenging operating environment, we continue to benefit from a diversity of assets and services, with strong revenue growth in EMAPA, (Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa & Asia, Pacific) and another good quarter of data revenue growth offsetting weakness in Spain?. He added, ?Whilst we expect revenue around the bottom of the outlook range, our continued focus on cost reduction enables us to reiterate our operating profit and cash flow guidance for the year.? The company announced that communications services now account for 15% of group revenue, while the mobile customer base was up by 8.5 million subscribers at 269 million worldwide. India contributed the largest share in the increase in the subscriber base during the quarter, adding 5.1 million customers. The total customer base in the region has reached 122.6 million and includes 49.2 million customers in India, making it the largest subsidiary by customers within the Vodafone group.
In the region-wise break-up, Europe saw service revenue grow by 15.7%. Spain was the weak spot owing to stiff competition. In the EMAPA region the service revenue went up by 30.9%, out of which India accounted for over one half. Verizon Wireless saw a net customer addition of 1.5 million customers for the quarter ended June 2008.