Vodafone Group provided some details of its operations in the quarter to 30 June 2011, with total reported revenue increasing by 3.5 percent to £11.66 billion, and service revenue rising by 2.6 percent to £10.86 billion. As could be expected, the company saw a mixed performance across its various markets, with strong organic service revenue growth in Turkey (32.1 percent), India (16.8 percent) and Africa (Vodacom, 7.8 percent). Its UK (1.7 percent) and German (0.2 percent) performances were described as “resilient.” Conditions in southern Europe remain “challenging,” with organic service revenue decreases of 9.9 percent in Spain and 1.5 percent in Italy due to price reductions. Also noted was a revenue decrease at Australian affiliate Vodafone Hutchison Australia, resulting from well-documented “network difficulties” at this business. 

Vodafone said that group data revenue increased by 24.5 percent in organic terms to £1.5 billion, and now represents 13.7 percent of its service revenue. European smartphone penetration was 19.5 percent, compared with 13.6 percent in Q1 fiscal 2011. On a Group level, capital expenditure of £1.2 billion was £0.2 billion higher primarily due to LTE investments in Germany and network enhancements at Vodacom. During the period, Vodafone reduced its net debt, following the receipt of £6.8 billion from its disposal of its stake in French operator SFR. It is 10 percent of the way through a £4 billion share buyback. During the period, it announced the sale of its holding in Polish operator Polkomtel, and agreed terms to buy a further 33 percent stake in Indian subsidiary Vodafone Essar.