Vodafone prepares tactics as market matures

As the market for mobile phone services grows, Vodafone New Zealand continues to add customers even as it loses market share.

In its latest results for the three months to March 31, the telecommunications company said it had a net increase of 44,000 customers, while its market share slipped to 52.5 per cent, from 52.9 per cent at the end of 2005.

At the end of March a year ago Vodafone's share was 55.4 per cent of the market.

The network had 2,068,000 customers at the end of March 2006, while the 602 million total voice minutes in the quarter was higher than in three of the previous four quarters, but below the 616 million in the three months to December. In the March 2005 quarter voice minutes totalled 539 million.

Average monthly revenue per user was unchanged from the previous quarter at $51.20, but down from the March 2005 quarter figure of $52.50.

Early last month, Telecom reported it had 1.88 million total mobile connections as at March 31, a 23 per cent increase during the year, with connections up about 70,000 in the quarter.

Telecom's monthly average revenue per user was down 10 per cent to $45.90, which the company said was a result of the large take-up of prepaid services during the year.

Total Telecom mobile revenues for the March quarter were up 7.8 per cent to $193 million.

Vodafone NZ finance director David Sullivan today said his company's strategy was not to go after customer growth at all costs.

Instead, it aimed to have steady customer growth and to introduce new services in what was becoming a mature and highly penetrated market.

Talking on National Radio he said that average revenue per customer had remained relatively flat, while usage had grown significantly.

"So what we have is a larger customer base delivering more-or-less the same revenue per customer but lots more usage," he said.

In September , Vodafone NZ is to launch a 3G mobile broadband service.

Vodafone NZ's parent company Vodafone Group PLC on Tuesday reported a record net loss of £21.9 billion ($95.12 billion) in the year ending March 31, but share prices rose after the company announced it would be returning an additional £3 billion to shareholders.

The loss, the largest-ever for a British-based company, reflected a £23.5 billion charge for the continuing writedown of assets bought during a spree of acquisitions in 1999-2000.

- NZPA