Vodafone ups profit guidance

The mobile phone giant expects operating profits for the year to March 31 at the upper end of the 11.8bn to 12.2bn forecast in November.

It has now achieved a fifth successive quarter of revenues growth, with strong results in emerging markets such as India accompanied by improved trading in its more mature markets, including the UK and Germany.

In its home market, service revenues grew by seven per cent in the quarter to 1.26bn as a result of higher penetration of smartphones such as Apple's iPhone and the take-up of mobile internet bundles.

The growth, which compared with a 5.2 per cent rise in the previous quarter, came despite continued strong competition and weaker revenues in pre-paid phones.

At the start of last year, Vodafone became the third network to muscle into the iPhone market in the UK. By November, around 19 per cent of Vodafone's customers in the UK were smartphone users, with 60 per cent of them utilising the company's data services.