Vodafone signed up 24,000 extra Irish customers in the last quarter of 2002, the mobile operator said this morning.
The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) in Ireland is the highest of all its main European markets. ARPU for the 12 months to end of December rose to €542 from €523. This compares to €455 in Britain, €312 in Germany and €347 in Italy.
"This is the third consecutive quarter that has seen an increase in group organic customer growth and in annual ARPU (average revenue per user) in some of our key markets," said Chief Executive Chris Gent, who will stand down later this year.
The company has 1.73 million subscribers in the Republic, of which 70 per cent are pre-paid users.
In Japan, however, Vodafone's J-Phone unit continued to suffer a decline in ARPU as less active subscribers sign up to its service and dilute the average revenue figures.
In the 12 months to the end of December, Japanese ARPU was 88,238 yen (€762) compared with 89,193 yen three months before.
Vodafone announced earlier this month that it had signed up 380,000 users to its Live! multimedia and picture messaging service in the first two months since its launch.