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Vodafone ends fiscal year with 46.8 million LTE subs

U.K.-based Vodafone Group recorded revenues of $59.8 million

Vodafone Group recorded 41 billion pounds ($59.8 billion) in revenues for its fiscal year ended March 31, a decline of 3% compared to the previous fiscal year. Group service revenue was 37.1 billion pounds for the year, down 3.5% year-over-year.
“This has been a year of strong execution for the group, returning to organic growth in both revenue and [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] for the first time since 2008,” said Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao.
In Europe, Vodafone recorded 4.4 billion pounds in revenue during its fourth fiscal quarter, down 4.4% year-over-year, while revenues from operations in Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific totaled 11.8 billion pounds, down 0.8%
“We have now successfully concluded our Project Spring organic investment program,” Colao said. “This has transformed the quality of our technology, enhancing our customers’ experience and enabling us to expand our enterprise services.”
The telecom group said it added 43,000 new mobile sites and installed 115,000 modernized single radio access network base stations. As a result of the completion of the Project Spring program, Vodafone said it now has 50,000 more 2G-enabled sites, 77,000 more 3G-enabled sites and 76,000 more LTE-enabled sites. The telco also said it added 102,000 new high capacity backhaul links.
Vodafone Group ended March with 46.8 million LTE customers, and a total customer base of 121.4 million customers across Europe. Germany was the group’s largest European market in terms of subscribers with 30.3 million mobile subscribers, followed by Italy with 24.1 million customers, the U.K. with 18.2 million subscribers and Spain with 14.3 million subscribers. In Europe, Vodafone said it hit 87% LTE population coverage at the end of the fiscal year.
The telco said it ended the fiscal year with 340.8 million mobile subscribers in Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific. In India, Vodafone ended March with 197.9 million mobile subscribers. Since the launch of Project Spring, Vodafone said it added more than 37,700 new 3G sites in India, taking the total to 55,500 sites. The carrier’s 3G coverage currently reaches 95% of the Indian population of target urban areas. Vodafone India has launched LTE in five coverage circles.
In South Africa, the telco’s subsidiary Vodacom counted 70.4 million mobile subscribers at the end of its fiscal year.

Huawei inaugurates ICT capabilities centers in Jordan

In other EMEA news, Huawei launched its ICT Capabilities Centers in Amman, Jordan.The facility includes a regional network optimization center and a local ICT training center.
The centers were launched as part of an agreement with the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology of Jordan.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro covers Global Carriers and Global Enterprise IoT. Prior to RCR, Juan Pedro worked for Business News Americas, covering telecoms and IT news in the Latin American markets. He also worked for Telecompaper as their Regional Editor for Latin America and Asia/Pacific. Juan Pedro has also contributed to Latin Trade magazine as the publication's correspondent in Argentina and with political risk consultancy firm Exclusive Analysis, writing reports and providing political and economic information from certain Latin American markets. He has a degree in International Relations and a master in Journalism and is married with two kids.