Vodafone stems customer losses in last quarter

Vodafone Hutchinson Australia (VHA) shed 22,000 customer connections in the last quarter of 2013, its lowest customer loss since the company embarked on a range of initiatives to stem customer churn.

Former VHA chief executive Bill Morrow.

The results compare to a customer loss of 584,000 in the third quarter of last year.

According to quarterly results released by part owner Vodafone Group [PDF], VHA saw service revenue drop eight percent, a comparable result to the last two quarters. It also recorded no net customer additions for its prepaid and postpaid customer base.

Despite the lack of subscriber growth and continuing revenue decline, Vodafone Group painted a rosier picture of the joint venture in Australia, saying its turnaround remains on track with improved levels of network performance and customer base management - an effort attributable to outgoing CEO and 'turnaround specialist' Bill Morrow.

At the end of 2013 Vodafone's customer base stood at five million. Over the last three years VHA shed 2.5 million customers - predominantly a result of 3G network issues in 2010. It has since poured billions of dollars into upgrading its 3G network and building a 4G network across a number of Australian cities.

Globally, Vodafone Group bumped up customer numbers from over 411 million to more than 419 million. Group revenue for the last quarter was £10.9 billion (A$20 billion) worldwide, a 3.6 percent drop from £11.3 billion the year before.