Vodafone revenues up 10% in 2009

Vodafone, the world’s biggest operator by revenues said Thursday that group revenue increased ten per cent year on year to £11.5bn in the quarter ended December 31 2009, compared to £10.47bn in the same quarter in 2008. Revenue for the full year came in at £41bn, up from £35bn in 2008.

The UK-based carrier lifted its guidance range on adjusted operating profit for 2009 from the previously announced range of £11bn-to-£11.8bn to £11.4bn to £11.8bn.

At the end of 2009, Vodafone recorded over 313 million mobile customers, following net additions of 11.8 million during the final quarter of 2009. The company now has 121 million subscribers in Asia and the Middle East, 114 million in Europe, and 77.5 million in Africa.

Overall voice revenue for the year climbed to £26.9bn in 2009 from £24bn in 2008, while data revenues were up to £3bn from £2.1bn a year ago and fixed line revenue increased from £1.87bn to £2.7bn

Last year, the firm accelerated its £1bn cost reduction programme to target a further £1bn in operating cost savings by 2012, by focusing on network, sourcing and infrastructure scale across a wider geographic area, and through further overhead reduction.