Vodafone post 2.4 million 3G subscribers

May 24, 2005

Vodafone announced its 3G mobile phone service has attracted 2.4 million subscribers worldwide and reported profits before writedowns of £10.3 billion.

The number of 3G subscribers beat many forecasts by financial analysts. They estimated Vodafone to have around 1.5 million 3G customers. The company brought out 3G data cards before 3G handsets with the aim of initially attracting business users. Data card subscribers accounted for 300,000 of the total 3G subscribers.

Vodafone 3G active devices
Country	At 31 March 2005 (‘000s)
Germany	358
Italy	665
UK	190
Japan	798
Spain	88
Other	253
Controlled Total	2,352

Sales rose 2% in the year to 31 March to £34.13 billion. Despite the huge profits, a rise by 3%, the company actually made a lost of £4.7 billion when writedowns are taken into account. Vodafone also said it would buy back £4.5 billion worth of its own shares, and double its ividend payment to 4.07p.

While the company's European business performed well, its Japanese business continues to struggle. Sales at the Japanese business fell 11.2% as customers defected to rivals, whom offer flat rate plans for their data services.

Chief executive Arun Sarin warning that competition was rising.

"Whilst competitive pressures are increasing, there is clear evidence that our global scale and scope is enabling us to deliver innovative customer propositions and to produce superior results," he said.

Vodafone's customer base increased by 16.3 million to 154.8 million and aims to have 10 million 3G customers by the end of March 2006.