Vodafone 4G is gaining momentum in select telecom markets after the mobile operator announced its £19 billion Project Spring Capex (capital spending) program.
Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said: “Mobile customer appetite for 4G services is clearly growing. We also see very strong growth in demand for data in India.”
The Project Spring — which will massive investments in the next two years — is aimed at improving customer experience in all markets.
“Our £19 billion Project Spring investment program has taken off quickly, with Capex nearly doubling year-on-year, and our 4G coverage in Europe rose 20 percentage points to 52 percent in the last nine months. We are increasingly well positioned to deliver high speed mobile and fixed data services to consumers and businesses alike,” Colao added.
4G investment
Vodafone, which said its service revenues dipped 4.2 percent to $16.08 billion (£9.46 billion) in Q1 fiscal 2014-15 due to tough market conditions in Europe, where revenue slipped 7.9 percent, said Capital expenditure of £1.9 billion in the quarter nearly doubled.
Its Capex plan started reflecting in customer additions and network quality.
For instance, in Germany network performance continued to recover, with a significant reduction in dropped call rates, said Vodafone announcing the Q1 revenue result.
In the UK, the consumer mobile business returned to growth in the quarter, with continued good traction for 4G bundled with content packages.
In AMAP, Vodafone noticed growth across most markets, driven by network quality, demand for data and strong commercial execution.
In India, it made further investments in 3G network roll-out. The company does not share country specific Capex details.
In Europe, 4G network now covers 52 percent of the population against 46 percent in Q4, with 4,700 4G sites deployed in the first quarter.
As a result, data traffic growth in Europe has accelerated to 53 percent in Q1 from 42 percent in the previous quarter.
“We are supporting the 4G roll-out with a targeted, local communications strategy focusing on network benefits and differentiation rather than price. We are investing in additional 2G and 3G sites to improve voice quality and reliability, with a further 2,400 2G and 3G sites installed across Europe during the period,” Colao added.
In India, where Vodafone aims to have 95 percent 3G outdoor coverage in targeted urban areas over the next two years, the company has taken 3G coverage on this footprint to 89 percent, with a further 2,305 sites added. In India, Vodafone is yet to start 4G roll outs on FD-LTE technology.
In South Africa, it added 473 4G sites and 293 3G sites in the quarter. Around three-quarters of its sites are now connected to its own high capacity transmission network.
In Germany, the telecom operator achieved 3.4 million Vodafone Red and 1.5 million 4G customers. The roll-out of 4G LTE services continued with a focus on urban areas, with overall outdoor population coverage of 70 percent. It made significant further improvements to our voice and data networks during the period.
In Italy, 4G services are now available in 443 municipalities and outdoor population coverage has reached 48 percent.
In the U.K. telecom market, the roll-out of 4G services continued with outdoor population coverage reaching over 40 percent and 0.9 million 4G customers.
In Spain, it had over 1.0 million 4G customers and 4G services are now available in all Spanish provinces, with 58 percent population coverage.
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Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
