The mobile landscape is going through a notable shift.
Five years ago T-mobile combined with Orange to create EE, which is now holding hands with BT. Last year Dixons Carphone proving the doubters wrong with a merger that has been notably successful, even more so since the demise of Phones 4U 10 months ago – once a beacon of independent mobile phone retail.
It‘s a competitive market but there is hope for Vodafone yet. The phone giant is beginning to show signs of recovery in Europe, especially in the UK, where it is back in the black.
The phone giant had a better three months to 30 June. Reported group revenues fell 0.9% to £10.1m, though organic revenues rose 3.3%.
While European figures were not as strong, Vodafone said it had made a “continued recovery”.
There is less “contract churn” across all major markets but data usage is growing “significantly”, with 18.9m customers using 4G in Europe now.
Chief executive Vittorio Colao said: “We have made a good start to the year. Our emerging markets have maintained their strong momentum and more of our European businesses are returning to growth, as customer demand for 4G and data takes off.
We continue to hit our Project Spring build milestones and customers are beginning to value the improvement in service that is resulting: contract churn in Europe is now falling and mobile ARPU trends are stabilising in a number of key markets.“
He added: “Our other key growth areas – unified communications and enterprise – are performing strongly, benefiting from the increased capabilities and footprint that our higher levels of investment are delivering. However, our markets are, as always, highly competitive and we therefore have to remain very focused on efficiency, cost control, and excellent value and service to customers, while continuing to deliver a good return for shareholders.”
