How does this compare to EE do you know?
Just wondered if the better EE 4G coverage and the much better 3G coverage impacts this much?

Sorry, I don't have the figure for EE. They tend to release stats on this with just percentages or graphs which have units but no numbers!

Compared to Three, average data use is over >3GB with average data use on AYCE plans approaching 5GB.

Bear in mind that Vodafone's actual average is only ~700mb and their average across 2.2m 4G customers is 2.6GB.

Latest Vodafone numbers. Note they've changed how they report prepaid customer numbers and have removed 1.7m of them from the total this quarter.


Vodafone UK results for the quarter ending March 2015 (Jan-Mar 2015). Comparatives are with the previous quarter (Oct-Dec 2014) and the same quarter a year ago (Jan-Mar 2014).

Mobile service revenue: £1110m (2014 Oct-Dec: £1132m, 2014 Jan-Mar: £1096m)

Mobile Customers (Total): 18.415m (2014 Dec: 19.853m, 2014 Mar: 19.492m)
Mobile Customers (Prepaid): 6.485m (2014 Dec: 7.972m, 2014 Mar: 7.825m)
Mobile Customers (Contract): 11.930m (2014 Dec: 11.881m, 2014 Mar: 11.667m)

4G Customers: 2.5m (2014 Dec: 2.2m, 2014 Mar: 0.6m)

Smartphone penetration: 68.2% (2014 Dec: 65.4%, 2014 Mar: 61.3%)

Thanks as always Japaul.
Ouch those results do not look good. Service revenue is down like EE and O2 but at least the drop isn't as large as those two. ARPU is also higher for Vodafone than EE or O2. Contract customers have also had the largest increase in customers comparatively but the prepaid churn is awful. Did they have a reason for changing the way it was reported like making Vodafone seem like a smaller network to the regulator,increasing smartphone penetration by much more than it would have including those ex registered prepaid customers or increasing ARPU?
Hopefully recent and upcoming tariff changes will boost 4G customers numbers or soon even MVNOs will have caught up.

On another topic but still Vodafone. According to Hot UK deals they are having another price reduction weekend this bank holiday including the Sony z3 for £300. This is not confirmed though. Remember it will be locked to Vodafone and on a previous price reduction on the Samsung s5 there was a lot of hassle trying to unlock it.

Actually the revenue figures are okay as generally the best measure for comparison when it comes to revenue type items is the same quarter a year ago due to specific things that influence the different quarters. This shows continued growth on a similar trend to the previous quarter.

Not sure why they've chosen to restate the PAYG base now. Presumably it's to align activity assumptions with other countries. I wouldn't think it would have much to do with trying to appear smaller to the regulators as they would look more at revenue figures. It's a big change though.

The 4G customer numbers also look suspicious. I thought 2.5m looked a bit low and their press release says 3.0m even though they are both supposed to be for the end of March. Maybe a mistake in the stats.

On 4G rollout they've struggled saying a fast rollout was proving more difficult in the UK than elsewhere. The original Spring target was I think (from memory) an outdoor 99% by the end of Project Spring (March 2016) but this is now going to be late. They said it was 63% at the end of March 2015 although apparently this equates to 71% in the way Ofcom measure it.

Ah good point, I forgot that seasonal factors would have an impact on Oct-Dec especially.
Hopefully revenue will continue to grow with Vodafone Connect, and they continue on target to rollout Vodafone Wallet, Call+ and 4G+ even though the 4G target has slipped but that was always to be expected I guess. All the networks were extremely optimistic even with sparse rollout, I guess we are looking around 2018/2019 for dense coverage from all networks, and maybe about 2500 2600MHz masts.

Yes it does look like a mistake, 800000 4G increase would make more sense, although for a network offering so much added value like Now TV and 4G+ I have no idea why take up isn't higher than it is.

Latest quarterly numbers for Vodafone.


Vodafone UK results for the quarter ending June 2015 (Apr-Jun 2015). Comparatives are with the previous quarter (Jan-Mar 2015) and the same quarter a year ago (Apr-Jun 2014).

Mobile service revenue: £1104m (2015 Jan-Mar: £1110m, 2014 Apr-Jun: £1104m)

Mobile Customers (Total): 18.317m (2015 Mar: 18.415m, 2014 Jun: 19.572m)
Mobile Customers (Prepaid): 6.304m (2015 Mar: 6.485m, 2014 Jun: 7.845m)
Mobile Customers (Contract): 12.013m (2015 Mar: 11.930m, 2014 Jun: 11.727m)

4G Customers: 4.7m (2015 Mar: 3.0m, 2014 Jun: 0.9m)

Smartphone penetration: 69.8% (2015 Mar: 68.2%, 2014 Jun: 62.4%)



Vodafone said outdoor 4G pop coverage was 68% at the end of June (they reckon this is 76% using Ofcom's definition) up from 63% at the end of March and the number of 4G sites was up by 800 in the quarter.

The other networks all report next week but I won't be covering them as I've just topped up my Three sim to use Feel at Home

Looks like a fairly healthy set of numbers to the untrained eye. The expected small decrease in Prepaid customers with a modest increase in contact customers.
Smartphone penetration keeps teasing us, c'mon public you can make 70%

Not that they will be doing but if CTIL keeps going at the same rate we can expect another 4800 sites done by 2017, I'm not sure how many out of 18500 that would leave to do?
Let's say they did 3200 a year since 2013 that would leave them with 12800 by 2017, I really hope they aren't that far short.
Enjoy your holiday japaul, just don't forget to bring us back some souvenirs in the form of speedtests

Well they will have to speed up those mast upgrades if they are going to hit 2017 target.

More meh results from a meh company. On the bright side at least their smartphone penetration is increasing albeit slowly unlike their best friend O2 who is going in reverse with declining Smartphone penetration

Looking forward to more results next week. Maybe japaul can take a quick break from his holiday to update us?

Haha Everything, not a chance! But if you're keeping a lookout, EE will announce on Monday, O2 on Thursday and Three on Friday.

Not sure they would want to lose over a Million Customers from this time last year. Even if they have gained just under 300 Hundred Thousand Contract Customers.

Wasn't that due to the way they reported there numbers? It says above that in previous quarter they removed 1.7m customers due to the way results are reported?

My bad then.

Thanks again Japaul for doing this.

Interesting to see how many people now have a 4G subscription, must be around 25 million or something by now. I'll have to check later.

Hope you have a good holiday mate!

Latest quarterlies for Vodafone.


Vodafone UK results for the quarter ending September 2015 (Jul-Sep 2015). Comparatives are with the previous quarter (Apr-Jun 2015) and the same quarter a year ago (Jul-Sep 2014).

Mobile Service Revenue: £1110m (2015 Apr-Jun: £1104m, 2014 Jul-Sep: £1126m)

Mobile Customers (Total): 18.333m (2015 Jun: 18.317m, 2014 Sep: 19.668m)
Mobile Customers (Prepaid): 6.255m (2015 Jun: 6.304m, 2014 Sep: 7.885m)
Mobile Customers (Contract): 12.078m (2015 Jun: 12.013m, 2014 Sep: 11.783m)

Smartphone Penetration: 71.1% (2015 Jun: 69.8%, 2014 Sep: 63.8%)

4G Customers: 5.3m

4G Outdoor Population Coverage: 75% (82% on Ofcom definition)

About 20% higher Smartphone Penetration more than its fellow laggard O2.

Latest numbers for Vodafone



Vodafone UK results for the quarter ending December 2015 (Oct-Dec 2015). Comparatives are with the previous quarter (Jul-Sep 2015) and the same quarter a year ago (Oct-Dec 2014).

Mobile Service Revenue: £1109m (2015 Jul-Sep: £1110m, 2014 Oct-Dec: £1132m)

Mobile Customers (Total): 18.395m (2015 Sep: 18.333m, 2014 Dec: 19.853m)
Mobile Customers (Prepaid): 6.223m (2015 Sep: 6.255m, 2014 Dec: 7.972m)
Mobile Customers (Contract): 12.172m (2015 Sep: 12.078m, 2014 Dec: 11.881m)

Smartphone Penetration: 71.7% (2015 Sep: 71.1%, 2014 Dec: 65.4%)

4G Customers: 6.3m

4G Outdoor Population Coverage: 79% (86% on Ofcom definition)

Many thanks as always for posting these.

Does anyone know how much that population coverage differs from o2 because from what I can make out on here there are now a few differences in coverage?

Normally O2 quote a figure a few percentage points ahead of Vodafone. Last time it was 78% so we'll see what they say later this month. Whether the difference is real because of timing or just a different measure, I'm not sure.

The difference between Vodafone's figure and what it would be using Ofcom's measure is large meaning Vodafone's threshold for assuming coverage is quite stringent.

I agree, I enjoy these posts japaul! Thanks.

What's 3G population coverage at these days?

There's no proper up to date figure out there but I'd say low 90s.