Mobile growth cools for Vodafone Pacific

By RICHARD BRADDELL

Runaway growth in the cellphone market may be juddering to a halt, with Vodafone's British parent reporting that customer numbers in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji grew a mere 119,000 in the last quarter.

No division between countries was given, but Vodafone New Zealand reported a record 136,000 new customers on its own in the preceding March quarter.

The subdued growth in Vodafone Pacific's June quarter subscribers may reflect sluggish economic growth in Australia and New Zealand.

The company has also made moves to cull low-margin customers.

But it could also be the first evidence of moves by Vodafone and Telecom, as well as cellphone firms globally, to concentrate on revenue growth rather than customer numbers.

Vodafone Australia, with about 2.2 million customers, is much larger than the New Zealand arm, which has 900,000-plus customers.

But its poor performance relative to the rest of the Australian market has given rise to speculation that its British parent may consider pulling out of Australia.

Vodafone has denied that it is considering any such move.

And while Vodafone Australia would be an attractive merger partner for Telecom or its Australian third-generation mobile partner Hutchison, that was regarded as unlikely by one analyst, who said it was more likely that Vodafone would package up its Asian and Pacific interests for a partial float.

Vodafone Australia's performance may have been crimped by a restructuring this year and price increases that have encouraged dealers to sell other operators' services.

However, the move to higher prices in Australia is becoming entrenched, with other operators also raising prices and trimming back handset subsidies.