Vodafone has created a new business unit called Total Communications, which will oversee the full integration of the Perlico business into Vodafone and be a force in the mobile and home broadband areas.
Today, as Vodafone Ireland’s parent company Vodafone Group reports half one revenues of £19.9bn sterling, up 17.1pc, the local operations of the company revealed it had a customer base of 2.23 million at the end of this quarter, up 0.6pc on the previous year.
The company’s fixed-line and DSL business added a further 76,621 customers, boosting Vodafone’s total telecoms base to 2.31 million at the end of September.
The company has appointed Paul Woods to be general manager of its new Total Communications division. Woods, who will oversee the expansion of Vodafone services across the mobile and home broadband areas, will also oversee the full integration of the Perlico business into Vodafone.
“Vodafone will continue to drive innovation in the fixed-line broadband market in the coming quarter,” explained strategy director Gerry Fahy.
“Our strategy as a total telecommunications company is to expand our fixed-line offering and exploit the synergies delivered through convergence of mobile and fixed products,” Fahy added.
Vodafone’s total mobile broadband base in the quarter exceeded 94,000 at the end of September.
During the quarter, Vodafone formed a partnership with Lenovo to sell built-in mobile broadband as standard across ThinkPad notebooks.
Vodafone Ireland’s most recent quarter was boosted by 500,000 customers opting for its Passport roaming product during July and August, up 32pc on the previous year.
During the quarter, some 959 million text messages were sent – up 17.9pc on the year – while total voice minutes increased by 6.8pc to 1.62 billion minutes.
Average revenue per user at Vodafone decreased 5.7pc from €45.10 last year to €42.50 this year.
Irish customers of the company used an average of 248 voice minutes and sent 143 messages in the quarter, compared with the European average of 147 voice minutes and 74 text messages.
“Vodafone remains the No 1 mobile operator in Ireland, with the largest customer base and widest range of best-in-class products and services,” chief financial officer John Kent explained.
“In the last quarter, we re-introduced our best-ever prepay offer, Free Calls & Free Texts, and made it even better value by offering it to customers for life. We also gave Vodafone Passport customers the opportunity to roam abroad for the price of a local call,” Kent said.
By John Kennedy
