ATHENS: The weak economic climate in Greece led to a further deterioration in Vodafone’s revenue growth in the latest quarter to December. Vodafone Greece saw a 1.3 percent organic decline in service revenue to the equivalent of GBP 139 million, compared to a fall of only 0.3 percent in the previous quarter. Vodafone said the macroeconomic environment is putting increased pressure on consumer contract ARPU in particular.
In the three months, the operator lost 45,000 postpaid customers, while adding 492,000 prepaid Sims. This brings the total base to 5.768 million, of which 27.7 percent postpaid, down from 31.0 percent a year earlier. Blended ARPU fell to EUR 8.2 from EUR 9.4 a year ago, and postpaid ARPU dropped to EUR 21.3 from EUR 22.1 in the previous quarter and EUR 23.0 a year earlier. The increase in smartphone penetration reversed, with only 32.8 percent of customers using the devices compared 37.3 percent in the previous quarter. Just over half (51.0%) of these customers had data subscriptions, down from 56.6 percent a year earlier.
In the fixed broadband market, Vodafone showed better progress, adding 18,000 customers in the quarter for a total 535,000. The integration of Hellas Online remains on track, the company said.
