Vodafone blames fall in revenue on regulation
VODAFONE Ireland has stemmed its mobile customer losses, but is still seeing key revenues fall here.
According to its latest accounts, half-year service revenue fell by 3pc (€15m) – from €484m to €469m – while its most recent quarterly service revenue (July, August, September) fell by 3.3pc (€8m) from €242m to €234m.
The company is blaming the fall in revenue on regulation, including an end to most roaming charges within the EU and a reduction in controlled mobile termination rates from other operators.
Vodafone – headed in Ireland by CEO Anne O’Leary – said that “excluding the impact” of such regulation, its half-yearly service revenue grew by 2pc and its quarterly service revenue fell by 2.8pc.
According to the company’s group results, Ireland is second last out of nine European countries in service revenue growth. It is one of only two of the nine named European markets where service revenue is lower now than two years ago. However, the UK has performed far worse than Ireland, with service revenue falling by a quarter (€597m) over the same period. The sharp UK decline dragged Vodafone’s overall European results down. Globally, the operator reported a rise in global profit from €1.5bn to €2bn, despite a fall in global revenues from €24bn to €23bn.
As the country’s largest mobile operator, Vodafone saw its Irish mobile customer base fall by 11,000 over the last year and by 66,000 compared to two years ago. However, it gained 3,000 mobile customers over the last three months and 4,000 mobile customers over the last six months.
The operator also saw a 3.3pc rise in its fixed-line broadband customer base to 265,400. This makes it the third-largest broadband operator in Ireland.
Vodafone also said that its €450m Siro joint-venture fibre broadband project with the ESB is now available to 110,000 businesses and homes, which is around 5pc of the country’s population.
The company is to launch new products, including ‘V for Vodafone’, which will include services such as connected trackers for vehicles and pets.