KEY POINTS:
Global mobile phone giant Vodafone has seen revenue per customer from its New Zealand business slide over the past 12 months.
Results for Vodafone show the average revenue per user for its New Zealand business, a subsidiary of the British-based parent, dipped to $49.30 - down 3.7 per cent on the same time last year.
Vodafone New Zealand head Russell Stanners is unfazed, saying the company added 176,000 new customers in the past 12 months, giving it 2.2 million users and almost 54 per cent of the market.
"This is just exactly what we planned to do and a very good performance."
The company added 44,000 customers in the first three months of the year - down on rival Telecom, which signed up 65,000 in the same quarter.
As the New Zealand mobile market reaches saturation point, both companies will look to increase revenue from individual customers.
Exact revenue figures for Vodafone New Zealand will not be available until the British parent files its audited results, but Stanners expects them to be on a par with last year's $1.3 billion.
Vodafone Group blamed adverse foreign exchange rates, increased regulatory costs and the purchase of internet company ihug last year for a drop of 3.1 per cent in Vodafone New Zealand's ebitda.
Stanners agrees that the single biggest impact on revenue for Vodafone had been the reduction of mobile termination rates from 26c to 20c, which will eventually fall to 14c over the next five years.
He dismissed a rumour the New Zealand arm was up for sale as "completely untrue", saying it was one of the best performers in the group.
