moneysupermarket.com: Vodafone’s full year financial results

Commenting on Vodafone’s full year financial results, Rob Barnes, head of mobiles at moneysupermarket.com, said: “The results show strong performance by Vodafone UK. The UK subscriber base has increased by seven per cent from 16.3 million in 2006 to 17.4 million, highlighting its fairly aggressive acquisition through better value voice and data tariffs for the consumer market. With this move away from business customers, the average spend per customer has dropped by almost two per cent to £23.60 per month.

“One of the key measures within the UK mobile market is churn – customers leaving the network. Vodafone’s churn has increased to 33.8 per cent (compared to 20.6 per cent in Italy), highlighting how competitive the UK market is and that customers are increasingly swapping networks for better deals and handsets.

“Vodafone 3G devices in operation have increased by 900,000 to 1.94 million. With 15.4 million of its subscribers not having a 3G-enabled phone, it is interesting to see Vodafone putting so much investment into 3G.

“Around half of Vodafone Group's roaming charges within Europe were on its roaming tariff – Passport. With group profits of £12.3 billion behind it, I would call on Vodafone to make Passport its standard tariff. It would be good to see Vodafone offering better value for the consumer rather than lining the pockets of shareholders.”