Mobile data and smartphone adoption, key drivers in Vodafone’s revenues

Vodafone Romania’s revenues reached EUR 387.6 million for the first six months of the financial year, ended September 30, 2012, which is 5.2 percent lower as compared to same period last year.

Service revenue reached EUR 367.9 million for the 6 months ended September 30, 2012, representing a 5.8 percent decline on the same period last year.

“On the revenue side, there is a trend of stabilization of the market, from one quarter to another. If excluding the effect of the mobile termination rate decrease (effective March 1st, 2012), service revenue decreased by only 1.3 percent y-o-y for the 6 months period ended September 30, 2012,” according to the press release of the company.

Vodafone’s customer base grew by 75,809 customers in the last quarter for a total of 7,874,220 customers, at September 30, 2012.

Mobile ARPU was EUR 7.4 for the 6 months ended September 30, 2012, which is 6.2 percent higher, year on year

“The mobile data growth and the increased adoption of smartphones were the main drivers for our revenue stabilization, partially compensating the negative effect of the regulatory decisions such as the reduction of the mobile termination rates, effective March 2012,” said Inaki Berroeta, CEO of Vodafone Romania.

Mobile data revenues grew by 28.4 percent in the quarter ending September 30, 2012, as compared to the same period of the last financial year.

“We are optimistic that next year will bring a higher uptake of mobile Internet services while we hope that the business environment will encourage the sustainability of our continuous investments in deploying LTE and bringing 4G services to Romanians,” Berroeta added.

Smartphone penetration in the base grew by 4.3 percent in the quarter ended September 30, 2012, year on year, and by 0.8 percent as compared to previous quarter.