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UMTS handsets up 241% and data revenue up 22%

Vodafone Italia has closed the first quarter of 2006 (1 April to 30 June) with 24,146,000 customers (up 90,000 on 31 March 2005). The number of UMTS handsets and connect cards has risen to 3,196,000 over the period, marking an increase of 241% on the end of June 2005. Vodafone live! customers total 5,650,000 at the end of June 2006.

Organic growth in service revenue (excluding the impact of termination rate cuts introduced by the Communications Authority) amounts to approximately 2.3% compared with the same quarter of last year. Taking account of the reduction in termination rates from 1 September 2005, service revenue has fallen by a nominal 3.4%.

Data and multimedia revenue performed well, growing 11% on the same period of 2005 and accounting for 17.3% of service revenue during the period. Messaging revenue is up 7.3%, whilst non-messaging data revenue is up by over 22% on the same period of 2005, thanks to increased penetration of UMTS handsets. Voice traffic is 7% up on the same period of the previous year.

Vodafone Italia’s ARPU (average revenue per user) for the quarter is EUR 27.6 up 4.5% compared to the previous quarter.