Vodafone Group Plc ("Vodafone") today announces an increase of 2.5 million in its worldwide proportionate registered customer base during the quarter ended September 2001. Overall, 2.6 million proportionate registered customers were gained during the quarter offset by a reduction of 0.1 million due to the increased stake in Japan outweighed by the disposal of the stake held in Korea. Vodafone's worldwide total proportionate base is now over 95.6 million registered customers. The venture base is now over 210 million registered customers.
In the Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa region, over 0.7 million proportionate customers were added during the period. The total proportionate customer base is now 24.9 million. The UK recorded a total of 251,000 new customers bringing the total UK base to 12.8 million customers. Contract net additions in the UK were more than 100,000 above the previous quarter, continuing the focus on higher value customers. The total contract base in the UK is now over 4.6 million customers.
The Central Europe region recorded proportionate net additions of 252,000 in the quarter bringing the total base to 23.5 million proportionate customers. D2 Vodafone added 147,000 proportionate net customers in the quarter resulting in a total proportionate customer base of 21.8 million. Contract net additions represented 73% of the total compared to 28% last quarter.
Proportionate net additions of over 0.7 million were added in the Southern Europe region in the period, resulting in a proportionate customer base of over 22.8 million. Omnitel Vodafone recorded a total of over 0.3 million new customers bringing the total proportionate base to over 12.7 million customers.
The total proportionate customer base in the Americas and Asia region increased to 21.4 million, having added over 0.8 million proportionate new customers. In the US, Verizon Wireless added over 0.3 million proportionate new customers bringing the total proportionate base to 12.7 million customers. The proportionate customer base increased by over 0.6 million in Japan, including 0.3 million from stake increases that occurred in the period. The 11.7% stake in the Korean operator Shinsegi was sold during the quarter and Vodafone's proportionate share of the customer base hasbeen eliminated from the Group total.
Sir Christopher Gent, Chief Executive of Vodafone said; "The anticipated churn from prepay growth last year in the UK and Germany was not as high as we expected and we have therefore come through this quarter in a better position and on track to achieve 20% customer growth this year. The mix of new customers continues to improve as we have moved our strategy from increasing customer numbers to a more targeted approach, focusing on the highest revenue and profit contributors."
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. With effect from the quarter ended 31 December 2001, Vodafone will no longer announce registered customer numbers in the first week following completion of the quarter. These numbers will be included in the KPI release at the end of the month following completion of the quarter.