Vodafone gets 10 mln UK users as growth picks up
(UPDATE: Adds analysis, analyst quote throughout)
LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Vodafone Group Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: VOD.L) said on Thursday it had signed up its 10 millionth British mobile phone user, indicating its subscriber growth had accelerated in the third quarter.
The milestone means the UK's largest mobile operator has added 640,000 customers since the end of June, outstripping the 572,000 it added in the second quarter.
With more than three weeks of the quarter remaining, Vodafone is on track also to exceed the 701,000 subscribers it added in the third quarter of 1999.
Vodafone said it passed two other milestones in recent weeks, carrying a record six million text messages in one day in August and 50 million voice calls a day this month.
The text message record coincided with the release of A- level exam results, suggesting teenagers were swapping their news using the short e-mail service.
Analyst Jo Oliver of Lehman Brothers said the subscriber figures suggested Vodafone's share of new customers had bounced back after a disappointing second quarter.
``The UK isn't the be-all and end-all for them, but people were concerned about the lower market share in the second quarter,'' he said.
The company told analysts at a meeting on Monday that subscriber growth was running 50 percent higher than in the previous quarter, he added.
Vodafone shares were up two percent at 288 pence, against the trend for European telecoms stocks.
``Today marks another major milestone in the history of Vodafone and another significant first for us,''
``It took Vodafone nearly nine years to reach its first million customers and another five years to reach 5 million customers, but in the last 20 months, Vodafone's five million customers have doubled to 10 million,'' said Peter Bamford, chief executive of Vodafone UK. |
