Vodafone plugs subscriber leak

However, for the quarter, Vodafone's average revenue per user (ARPU) for contract customers climbed only slightly, to $874 from $873 on an annualised basis in June, while the prepaid customer base ARPU dropped from $332 to $321 over the same period.

Overall customer ARPU dropped from $680 to $669.

Vodafone closed the September quarter with 2.27 million subscribers, up from 2.17 million in June, boasting a net addition of 99,000 subscribers, or nearly five times the number of net additions in the June quarter.

Vodafone's prepaid subscribers made up 42 percent of the customer base, up from the 38 percent reported in June.

"Due to the phasing out of handset subsidies and the higher proportion of pre-paid customers, the business has experienced an initial decline in blended ARPU. However, both post-pay and pre-pay ARPU are now stabilising with an increase in non-voice revenue," the company said in a statement.

Maher said Vodafone's ongoing cost-reduction drive, which had seen the company shed 12 percent of its workforce, was showing results.

"We're well on the way to halving our costs by the end of the financial year and we're now focusing on growing the business," he said.