Vodafone, the world’s second largest mobile phone network, has announced higher than expected third quarter results.
Although Vodafone is the worlds largest network by revenues it is some way behind China Mobile, which has just passed 300 million users. Vodafone reports that it has this week passed 200 million users having added 8.7 million in Q3, mainly due to growth in emerging markets.
The figures are complicated somewhat by the fact Vodafone owns 44% of Verizon, the US network and is including 44% of Verizon’s subscribers in its figures.
Vodafone is keen to move into emerging markets and appears to be following the lead of China Mobile in this respect after their buyout of Paktel this week.
Total revenue for the third quarter grew 5.1% and service revenue was up 4.8%.Subscriptions to premium 3G services have also increased by 2.5 million to bring the total number of subscribers to 13.6 million.
