Results from mobile phone operator Vodafone Ireland show that its customer numbers fell marginally in the three months to the end of March. The figure at March 31 was 2,177,000, down 1,000 from three months earlier, though it is up 102,000 compared with last year.
Monthly average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) was €44.60, down 8.2% from €48.60 in the same period last year. Revenue figures at Irish mobile companies have been falling because of increased competition, though Vodafone's Irish ARPU is still higher than in most of its other European businesses
Vodafone says voice minutes used by its Irish customers averaged 222 minutes a month, compared with its European average of 142. Strategy director Gerry Fahy also said it had sold 20,000 3G broadband devices by the end of the last quarter.
Overall, Vodafone worldwide said revenue for the year to the end of March was £31 billion, representing underlying growth of 4.3%. A final dividend of 4.41p has been declared, giving a total for the year of 6.76p.
The company warned that market conditions were likely to remain challenging in Europe as it reported flat annual profits.
The group made underlying profits of £8.75 billion in the year to March 31, down 0.5% on a year earlier, although pre-tax losses narrowed to £2.38 billion.
Vodafone said it had met or exceeded financial expectations in all key areas, even though its Europe operating region suffered from increased competition and regulatory pressures. It expects this trend to continue in the current year.
Revenues in the UK edged ahead 1.5% to £5.12 billion, but this failed to prevent earnings in the region from falling 10% to £1.46 billion in the year. The same rate of decline was seen in Germany - Vodafone's biggest market - as revenues dipped 5.4% to £5.44 billion and earnings stood at £2.43 billion.
As expected, Vodafone wrote down the value of its German business in today's results. It also took a further hit of £3.5 billion to cover the impact of legislation cancelling fixed fees on the top-up of pre-paid cards in Italy.
The total write-down of £11.6 billion seen in today's results was still better than the 323.51 billion taken by the company a year earlier.
