O2 Ireland said it expected service revenue growth in the low teens for the 12 months to the end of March 2005. In a trading statement this morning, the mobile phone company said this was higher than previously anticipated.
The group's UK parent, O2, said it expected UK service revenue growth to slow to mid-single digits next financial year as it announced 500 job cuts to help pay for 2,000 new UK call centre staff.
O2 also forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in line with average expectations of £1.75 billion sterling and underlying earnings per share slightly below the mid-point of an 8 pence to over 9p range.
Europe's sixth-ranked mobile phone group said it expects new customer growth to slow in fiercely competitive Britain, but added that it was targeting sustained, high-value customer growth in Germany.
O2 said it planned to open a new UK customer services centre and hire about 2,000 retail staff over the next two years, offsetting the costs by cutting 500 'non customer-facing' jobs in early 2005/06. It will charge £40-45m against this year's accounts.
O2 has about 23.2 million subscribers across Britain, Germany and Ireland.
