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Vodafone boosts subscriber figures

Total now 99.9 million...

By Heather McLean

Published: 29 January 2002 15:00 GMT

Vodafone is set to beat its yearly customer subscription targets as new user numbers rose by a massive 4.2 million during the last quarter.

The company stepped closer to its 20 per cent new subscriber target for the year as its worldwide customer base reached 99.9 million on 21 January.

Most of the growth during the third quarter, which ended 31 December, came from the group's J-phone initiative in Japan where consumers have been snapping up the multimedia handsets. Meanwhile, over 1.2 million new users signed up in Europe.

Vodafone is currently trying to bring in enough revenue to offset the cost of its 3G licences, which are not expected to bring the company a return on investment for some time.

The mobile phone operator and its rivals are attempting to encourage users to spend more money on their phones while the industry waits for higher bandwidth networks to kick in.

For related news, see
Virgin Mobile tots up 1.5 million customers
http://www.silicon.com/a50818
Troubled telco may cut jobs
http://www.silicon.com/a50777
Where next for Blackberry?
http://www.silicon.com/a50770

To buy related reports or event tickets, click:
Event: Interactive Games Summit 2002
http://www.silicon.com/goto-ecc-na1
Report: The Telecommunications Market Report
http://www.silicon.com/goto-ecc-na5

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