Vodafone gains in March quarter, but not up to brag

Mobile connections as of March 31, 2010
Vodafone: 2,504,000* (+11,000) | 50.07% market share by connection
Telecom: 2,291,000 (-19,000) | 45.81%
2degrees 206,000** (not supplied) | 4.11%

By Telecom's own count, its market share by revenue is 39% (from 38% in the year-ago quarter), illustrating that Vodafone still has an advantage in customers on higher-yielding 3G plans.

Mobile connections as of March 31, 2009
Vodafone: 2,502,000 | 52.63% market share by total connections
Telecom: 2,252,000 | 47.37%
2degrees: (n/a; launched Aug 09)

Vodafone NZ enjoyed a net gain of 11,000 customers during its quarter ending March 31 for a total of 2,504,000 according to accounts filed by its UK parent this evening NZ time.

The telco had claimed a “huge influx” of disgruntled XT users during the period, but now the spreadsheets have been filed in London, a solid rather than spectacular result has been revealed.

For the same period, Telecom suffered a net loss of 19,000 mobile customers. The company gained 5000 post-pay (contract) customers, but lost 24,000 on pre-pay. The company but the loss could be "primarily" accounted for by its new policy of switching off CDMA connections if they have been inactive for six months.

Within Telecom's  lower total, its troubled XT network (which suffered three major outages during the quarter) added 128,000 customers for a total of 595,000. (Vodafone does not break out a figure for 3G vs connections to its older GSM/GPRS network.)

On February 12, 2degrees claimed 206,000 customers had paid for a call on its network during the past 30 days. No update has been provided since by the privately-held company.

Bigger percentage on contract
Vodafone Group only broke out one other NZ stat: that the percentage of customers on pre-pay dropped to 70.2% from 70.7% in the previous quarter, continuing its gentle fall - and indicating that 2degrees is picking up the telco's lower-end rather than more lucrative contract customers.

Back where they started
In its quarter to December 31, Vodafone NZ gained 9000 customers. The quarter before that, it lost 27,000.

The net result: a year on from XT's launch, with all the sound and fury that's passed, in terms of total market share the two the telcos are essentially back where they started.

The picture is likely more nuanced in terms of market share by revenue, as Telecom starts to claw back higher-end customers.

But we won't see the full picture until Vodafone NZ files its full-year result with the Companies Office (it doesn't break out quarters) some months down the track.

By its own count, Telecom had 39% of mobile market revenue for the March quarter, up 1% over the year-ago quarter.

Vodafone Group's overall result
For its year to March 31, Vodafone Group had ebitda of £14.7 billion, just below the consensus forecast of £14.8 billion.

Only total rather than country-by-country financial figures were released for the quirky collective that forms Vodafone's Asia Pacific & Middle East division (consisting of India, Australia, Egypt, Fiji, New Zealand and Qatar).

Results for the region were dominated by a £2.3 billion impairment charge in India, and Vodafone Australia's merger with 10% Telecom NZ-owned Hutchison.

Asia Pacific & Middle East full-year revenue rose to £6.48 billion (from the previous year's £5.82 billion. Ebitda rose to £1.84 billion (from £1.78 billion). Adjusted operating earnings fell to £358 million from last year's £556  million. 

* Vodafone's total of 2,504,000 does not include so-called mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) such as TelstraClear (with around 30,000 customers), CallPlus, Slingshot, Black+White and Compass, which sell a rebadged version of Vodafone's 3G service.

**  To February 12. The number of connections exceeds the number of New Zealanders (4.36 million) - a factor of many having more than one SIM card, or more than one mobile device. Telecom said its number of data-only users on XT doubled to 118,000 during its March quarter.