Vodafone’s latest quarterly results show the company’s European businesses suffering from what it calls ‘increased competitive intensity’. Overall, group service revenue including joint ventures reached £10.16 billion. That’s a 2.5% increase year-on-year but the organic figure - excluding events such as acquisitions - shows a 3.5% drop.
In the UK, organic service revenue was down 4.5%, contrasting with a 15.5% increase in Turkey.
Vittorio Colao, Vodafone’s Chief Executive, said “We have made a good start to the year in our areas of strategic focus: growth in emerging markets has accelerated, we now have over 5 million customers benefiting from Vodafone Red, and 4G is live in ten markets. In addition, the proposed acquisition of Kabel Deutschland will create an excellent platform for our unified communications strategy in our most important market. Although regulation, competitive pressures and weak economies, particularly in Southern Europe, continue to restrict revenue growth, we continue to lay strong foundations for the longer term.”
The company confirmed that it plans to launch 4G in the UK at the end of this summer.
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