Vodafone happy about ARPU and 3G progress

Vodafone has reported solid subscriber figures for its most recently completed quarter, though its Japanese business remains a thorn in its side.

Figures out this morning show the mobile giant has added 3.1 million customers organically, with a further 2.7 million coming from acquisitions and stake changes in operators around the world.

There were 9 million Vodafone live! users as of the end of June and 16.3 per cent of the company's revenues now comes from data as opposed to 15 per cent during the corresponding three months a year ago.

Such a shift is good news for analysts, who focus on the long-term importance of data to the all-important average revenue per user (ARPU) figure. In a conference call, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin described performance as "very strong" in Germany, Spain and the US, where it is a 45 per cent owner of Verizon Wireless, and "going well" in Italy and the UK, which are "increasingly competitive environments".

However, he noted that in Japan, where the operator is in third place behind NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, revenues are down 5.5 per cent year on year, with that unit hit by "superior competitive offerings". The plan is for improved second-generation phones using the Japanese PDC standard as well as low- to high-end 3G offerings by Christmas this year.

That unit has been hit by changes in its executive ranks and the search is now on for a suitable Japanese CEO, Sarin said.

In other corporate areas, Vodafone will continue its share-buyback programme, considering its stock undervalued at the moment, return more cash to shareholders, and not pursue the proportion of France's SFR it does not already own by means of engaging fellow stakeholder Vivendi through a hostile bid.

In terms of 3G, Vodafone has sold some 50,000 data cards for laptops and Sarin said handsets will be coming out "in the Christmas quarter", with more detail to come nearer their launch.