Trading update for the quarter ended 30 June 2015
Highlights
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Q1 Group organic service revenue grew 0.8%*; Europe -1.5%*, AMAP 6.1%*
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Continued recovery in Europe: Germany -1.2%*, UK 0.2%*, Italy -2.0%*, Spain -5.5%*
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Momentum in AMAP, South Africa back to growth: India 6.9%*, Vodacom 4.5%*, Turkey 15.0%*
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Strong progress on Project Spring, mobile build 71% complete, European 4G coverage 75%
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24.1 million 4G customers across 18 markets
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Second consecutive quarter of enterprise growth, service revenue +1.8%*
Service revenue increased 6.9%* (Q4: 11.7%*), with the 
growth rate slowing due to the impact of regulation, including an MTR cut. Excluding MTRs, service revenue grew by 10.6%* (Q4: 13.2%*), with continued customer base growth and an acceleration in the take-up of 3G offsetting continued pressure on voice pricing. Data revenue grew 65% supported by the addition of 3.1 million new data customers, taking the total to 66.8 million. Smartphone penetration is now 26% across the country and 47% in the four metro circles and we now have 22 million 3G customers compared to 10 million a year ago. While total voice traffic continues to grow, the outgoing rate per minute has continued to decline, reflecting increased competition. The average minutes of use per customer is lower than a year ago but has increased slightly compared to the previous quarter. Total mobile customers increased 1.6 million giving a closing customer base of 185.4 million.
Progress on Project Spring remains strong with 1,000 2G sites and 1,100 3G sites added in the quarter (14,000 2G and 21,000 3G since the build commenced), taking our 3G outdoor population coverage in targeted urban areas to 91%. We are now trialling 4G services across selected areas and we continue to expand our M-Pesa service and now have 501,000 active customers supported by 94,000 agents.
