Vodafone reported 27 percent increase in
data revenue to 3.06 billion pounds in H1 2011-12 from 2.41 billion pounds in
H1 2010-11.
The mobile operator’s total income grew by
4 percent in H1 2011-12 at 23.52 billion pounds.
Voice revenue fell to 13.36 billion pounds
from 13.78 billion pounds.
Growth in fixdline business was 12.5
percent at 1.8 billion pounds in H1 2011-12 against 1.6 billion pounds in H1 of
previous fiscal.
Vodafone said that its strategy announced in
November 2010 is assisting the group in improving growth.
Focus on key areas of growth potential is
one of the strategies of Vodafone.
Mobile data revenue was up 23.8 percent
year-on-year to 3.1 billion pounds, and now represents 14 percent of Group
service revenue.
Data represents the single biggest
opportunity to Vodafone and the industry over the next few years, and we
intend to continue to be at the forefront of stimulating data adoption among
its customers.
Vodafone has increased smartphone
penetration in our European customer base to 21.7 percent, by broadening range
of handsets and marketing attractive commercial propositions. 58.7 percent of
these customers now have a data allowance included within their tariff
plan.
Pricing is becoming increasingly important
in preventing the substitution of voice and SMS usage with data usage and
ensuring that increased data traffic is properly reflected in its revenue. To
this end, Vodafone focused on migrating customers to integrated voice, SMS and
data bundles that insulate its revenue from changing customer behavior and
capture future growth in data usage.
At the end of H1, 24 percent of consumer
contract customers in our five largest European markets were on integrated
tariffs.
Vodafone also continued to make significant
network investments to improve data coverage, speed and reliability. The
company achieved over 50,000 LTE services customers in Germany.
During the period Vodafone acquired
spectrum in Spain and was awarded spectrum in Italy to ensure we have the best
possible portfolio of spectrum across a range of frequencies to deliver the
ongoing enhancement in performance that customers will expect.
Enterprise revenue across the Group was up
2.6 percent year-on-year in H1.
In Europe, enterprise represents 30 percent
of service revenue. Vodafone is seeing a number of trends in the enterprise
business such as the increasing focus on mobility, the move towards converged
services, the growth in the tablet market and companies’ desire to consolidate
their supplier bases.
Vodafone is addressing the full breadth of
the market. Within Vodafone Global Enterprise, which manages the largest
multi-national accounts, revenue was up 7 percent. At the SME and SoHo level,
Vodafone One Net continues to be rolled out across our footprint offering
customers a cost effective and simple converged mobile and fixed service.
In addition, Vodafone sees the potential
for data adoption to accelerate. The number of customers using Opera Mini,
a web browser that significantly improves the experience for customers using
data over 2G networks, has reached 13.7 million, up 98 percent year-on-year.
This demonstrates the strong underlying demand for data services, which we
expect to translate into strong service revenue growth as customers migrate to
faster 3G platforms.
Fixed revenue across the Group was up 6.1
percent year-on-year in the first half of the financial year.
Fixed revenue within enterprise was up 19.2
percent.
In Germany, Vodafone is developing new
services, such as Vodafone TV, to make its overall domestic connectivity
package more competitive.
Vodafone is focusing on new services. The
company is looking at significant potential for profitable growth from new
services, driven by two key factors the increasing level of intelligence in
our own network and the introduction of connectivity between appliances as well
as people, allowed by very high levels of mobile coverage.
During the period Vodafone launched “charge
to bill” services across a number of European markets and on a range of mobile
operating systems. Using this platform, customers can charge purchases from
online applications stores to their Vodafone mobile phone accounts, making it
much easier for users to make purchases.
Machine-to-machine revenue grew strongly,
with regulation in the utilities sector and the increasing use of
tracking and telemetry in the automotive sector being key drivers.
By Telecomlead.com Team
