Vodafone says that almost 90pc of Ireland’s population is now covered by 4G and that mobile data usage among its 2.3m customer base grew 65.4pc in the past year.
The mobile operator said that it has completed fibre-to-the-premises technical trials with ESB on 300 homes in Cavan, achieving speeds of 940Mbps.
The €450m joint venture with ESB is targeting speeds of up to 1Gbps.
In its interim management statement for the quarter ended 31 December Vodafone said that of its 2.3m customers, 2.1m are mobile customers with the total number of fixed line customers amounting to 275,500.
Vodafone reported that over 82pc of its mobile customer base now use mobile data services and that 68.4pc of customers now use smartphones, up 11pc year on year.
It reported that 92pc of all mobile data sessions were at speeds of greater than 3Mbps.
Vodafone’s network upgrade continues apace with upgrades in the South East, South West as well as the cities of Galway and Limerick.
The upgrade is currently nearing completion in the East Coast region, with work in the Midlands on schedule.
As well as making strong gains in the enterprise space, Vodafone also completed a €2.5m investment in its retail stores nationwide.
“Investments in our mobile network, our joint venture with ESB and advances in our 4G and 4G+ footprint are enhancing our total fixed and mobile communications offering,” Vodafone Ireand chief executive Anne O’Leary said.
“The growth of Enterprise has been encouraging with significant new business wins over the quarter.”
4G momentum
Globally Vodafone reported service revenues of stg£9.7bn, down 0.4pc.
CEO Vittorio Calao said that 4G is now available in 18 markets, with 13.7m 4G customers across the group.
“We have achieved another quarter of improving revenue trends in most of our major markets,” Calao said.
“Growth in India has accelerated again, driven by data. In Europe, improved commercial execution in both mobile and fixed over the last few quarters, combined with strong data demand and a more stable pricing environment, is supporting the steady recovery in the top line. Our recent cable acquisitions continue to perform well, with good progress made on integration.
“Our Project Spring investment programme is well advanced, with 4G coverage in Europe now 65pc, dropped call rates down to 0.64pc, and 26 million homes now passed by our own next generation networks: our customers are really beginning to notice the difference in experience that this investment delivers. We are confident that, over time, this will translate into further improvements in customer perception, ARPU and churn.”
4G hero image via Shutterstock
