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MOBILE PHONE USERS are deserting Vodafone in Ireland where the global telecoms player shed 29,000 customers in just 3 months.
But the company made up for some of the losses with an increase in its fixed-line broadband business, which picked up 7,000 customers in the Republic over the same period.
Vodafone has lost some 140,000 mobile customers in Ireland over the past two years on the back of a big drop in prepaid users, although over 2 million locals still rely on the carrier for mobile services.
The share of all its mobile customers choosing prepaid accounts fell from 65.4% to 55.3% between the three months to the end of September in 2012 and the same time this year.
Over that period, Vodafone gained 22,000 fixed broadband customers to bring its total subscribers to 208,000 to the end of September.
Vodafone Ireland said smartphone usage was still a “key growth driver” and mobile data usage had gone up 55% over the past year.
It said its data users on contracts went up 28% in the last quarter and 78% of its mobile customers regularly used mobile data.
The money trail
Overall, revenues have been rising steadily at its UK parent company and Vodafone turned over some £20.75 billion (€26.5 billion) in the last six months of this year, ahead of its earlier forecast for the period.
But the company’s organic growth – which trims out money coming from takeovers or mergers – was down 3% over the period.
Profits have been sliding – falling to £697 million (€889 million) over the last six months from £1.3 billion (€1.66 billion) for the same time in 2013.
Group chief executive Vittorio Colao said the company had seen “growing evidence of stabilisation” in its European business and customers were starting to enjoy the benefits of its £19 billion (€24.2 billion) investment program.
“Customers are showing an increasing propensity to trade up to bigger data allowances as a result of the 4G experience,” he said.
Today in Europe, only 6% of our customers are using 4G. In the next 18 months, we will reach 90% 4G coverage in Europe, giving us a great opportunity to increase penetration, stimulate data usage and grow customer spend.”
Irish 4G, broadband spreading
Vodafone Ireland said it had the biggest 4G footprint in Ireland and it reached 75% of the population across 6 cities and 352 towns as of the end of September.
The company recently announced it was forming a €450 million joint venture with ESB to go head-to-head with rival Eircom in rolling out high-speed broadband across Ireland.
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Vodafone are without a doubt the sneakiest most dishonest mobile provider in the country. Delighted to see them losing customers.
Since they moved 300+ customer care & support jobs to the UK, India & Egypt, just to eek out more cash….. I completely agree with you.
Worst customer service I’ve experienced in my life. 7months trying to sort broadband I was charged for that never worked
I recently moved from O2 to Vodafone because the O2 customer service wasn’t just shabby but completely dishonest aswell. I’m not saying Vodafone are necessarily much better in that regard but I straightaway noticed the improvement in voice call quality. They’ve got 4G too, which O2 don’t. Various of my friends consistently complain of poor network quality and dropped calls on 3. I wouldn’t hang them for moving their call centres to India or wherever either, since this is just a reality of modern business. 3′s support is run almost entirely from India, and O2′s support, though it is based in Ireland, is so bad they may as well be in India. It doesn’t give me any comfort to be supporting Irish jobs when said Irish employees are doing everything they can to scam me.
I was with them years, way to expensive. I changed provide and now pay less than half my old bill.
@Jonathan yeah the Broadband deal looks very shady. Nearly got sucked in to that one myself!
We were the same, and they still ring to see if I want broadband! I can never contact them though! Gangsters!
Couldn’t agree more!
Probably the signal worst customer care crowd in the land.
The Ryanair of mobile phone companies.
You are correct, my mobile bill used to be 60-75 euros month, now I switched to s sim only plan at tesco 25 euros a month unlimited everything and better coverage when I go to the country
I moved from O2 to tesco mobile. For €10 I get unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles and 5GB of data.
I also have left them recently after being over 10 years with them. Coverage issues were one thing but the pig ignorant, useless, incompetent and unhelpful ‘Customer Care’ team were the final straw. Also, I found out after a bit of number crunching, no matter what plan I chose, for me, they were the most expensive provider out there …
It was the price of data for me as well as the coverage.
An added bonus for leaving them was I finally was able to get 4G on my iPhone with my new provider, something I didn’t consider at the time of my decision. I take it they still don’t provide 4G to Apple phones? Baffling.
Hi Dave,
Blatant plug here (sorry – young Irish startup with no marketing budget!), but if you are looking for a new operator, check out the KillBiller android app – it will look through your actual usage and compare it against all the plans on the market. There tends to be huge variance in prices out there.
Hope this helps,
Mr. Killbiller
I’ve a 5C and I’ve 4G with them in Cork……
I’m on a 24 nth contract but I think then I will be leaving them (12 mths to go) after being with them for over 10 years. They’re expensive, their customer service is non existent and their broadband is laughable although apparently we’re in a fibre area the connection continually drops or crawls for hours at a time. They’re starting to rival UPC. Scandalous.
Agree Dave, just upgraded my phone to a HTC M8 and nearly from day one it’s been giving me trouble. Been on to them loads of times and the usual BS. Iv been with them before they took over from eircell who I was with for years before that. Am going to email them in one final attempt to sort it out! Fedup.com
4g here in Kerry on iPhone for yonks. Maybe your settings wrong
Best of Luck to you guys, sounds like a great idea
Nope, setting was turned on.
Stuck new sim in for different network provider and hey presto, 4G on same device and no setting change.
Is that 4G you got with Vodafone?
My contract is up at the end of the month and I cant wait to get away fron them!
Their Home Phone and Broadband unlimited package is great value for less than €45.
Their mobile services are shockingly expensive though. How so many people still pay that much when the opposition is so much cheaper is beyond me.
My Vodafone contract is up in March, I’m considering buying myself out of it as it could work out better than paying the bills.. Meant to be €45 a month and it’s always €100+
Me too Louise….
Can’t wait to get away from them
Just got a text from Vodafone my next bill is €187! I’ll be paying them a visit today in person. I haven’t done anything different with my phone!
Now Vodafone, you can take this as a online survey rather than sending a text every time we enter a Vodafone store.
Your price plans and signal as well as customer service are bringing you down.
Crap Price plans, signal and customer service ?
Doesn’t leave much for them to do well on then :-)
Much agree I find vodaphone very expensive and out of touch I have been with them for ten years or more thinking of changing
I’d use a carrier pigeon before I’d use Vodafone.
I’d eat a carrier pigeon with feathers before I would go Meteor again !
I was a customer and they are a rip off…Never again.
It appears to me that they have down graded rural coverage. Can only get 3G coverage in the very center of towns.
Coverage for 3G isn’t static.
The higher the usage, the effective radius of a cell contracts.
The answer to this is more cells, which are costly & locals oppose.
Exactly what I hear..
And that is some rate of profit for a country the size of Ireland…. nearly €200/ year for every man, woman & child… and that’s +Profit+, not Sales…. and that doesn’t include all the Tax deductible interest paid thru’ offshore vehicles that hide shareholders’ identities, which is another big favourite scam of Corporations to hide & remove profits from the Tax net…
Business Cat
“….Coverage for 3G isn’t static.
The higher the usage, the effective radius of a cell contracts…..”
Er… that’s pure drivel, where on earth did you get that from?
‘Contention’ – the number of people requesting access – will reduce the data rates for individuals, but not the ‘range’ of cell towers.
And the range is most often limited by the handset’s transmission power, not the base station.
Mike – good point and not only reduce data rates but during busy hours many will find themselves on 2G/GPRS or EDGE.
I’m always on GPRS despite having full coverage. I get students from all over the world come to study with me and they always comment on how bade the network is here.
Mike, you are correct if it’s ADSL being discussed but with HDSPA and other mobile data technologies the cell radius does shrink due to the amount of people connected. The devices closest to the cell get the best connection. So if there’s a lot of people connect to a 3G cell the people further from the cell will drop back to EDGE or GPRS.
Went over my allowance on Vodafone broadband by 30g, got charged €40. Customer for 6 years paid over €4000 in that time. Rang to explain that the allowance tarriff was out dated and unlimited is the way forward, said if it can’t be changed I’ll be leaving. They said ok… Now have Sky broadband and their customer service is tremendous. Vodafone overall are horrible
You went over by 30 gigs and got charged €40?
Honestly that’s not bad.
Are you serious David???
That is cheaper than my current plan…yes it is cheap…not bad at all….to be honest…you are lying….if you went that much over your limit with vodafone it would cost 750 euros plus…by all means join the conversation but do not bother with the bullshit claims..
Switching is easy to do, I moved from vodafone when meteor first introduced unlimited free texts, then moved from them when three introduced unlimited free data… There’s no need to stick to expensive subscribers anymore
I’m with Vodafone since they came to Ireland, I know I could get a better deal with one of the other providers but I seem to be stuck in a rut and can’t be bothered changing, however today I have decided to seriously look into it.
If you have an Eircom landline or broadband in your house you should consider eMobile… On my sim only contract I pay €24 a month for unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 5GB of data!
5gb is pretty low. Three give unlimited data in fairness if you’re a hog on the mobile data.
Also, beware or €ircons charges when the romantic period is over – watch that bill climb!
I went for that same deal after leaving Vodafone and find them excellent.
3′s unlimited data plan has a fair usage cap of 15GB so beware of unlimited plans that are not unlimited. 3′ s broadband pro package offers 60GB for €35 per month (broadband only), big enough data plan for one person.
I have a contact for mobile broadband with them. It is by far the worst service you can get.I cannot wait to be rid of them.Never again will I use them. I ditched their fone service and the BB goes in April…good riddance.
I am one one of those people who left, ridiculous really, topped up 20, always empty when i needed it, main benefit was free calls to vodafone but as friends kept leaving vodafone, it was useless. The so called free data which is not free because you pay for it, barely lasted a couple of days. With o2 now, just top up once, having less issues. Same amount of data seems to last the whole month, vodafone used to use my data even when i was connected to wifi, o2 doesnt seem to do that. I know i could have turned the data off every time with voda, but its a hassle doing it all the time. I called Vodafone loads of times to ask where my data was going even when i wasn’t using it, they seemed uninterested so i said i was leaving. They didn’t care, happy with my new phone now, never out of credit for my needs.
Must add, that when i was in Dungarvan for holidays during the summer, there was no coverage for o2 when driving about
O2 coverage isn’t the best around Dungarvan actually none of the networks have great coverage.
Not surprised. Trying to contact Vodafone CS is like applying for an audience with the Pope, although the fairy stories they tell are much the same.
Leaving them as soon as contract is up , non existant coverage (only recently) , useless customer service , please can I speak to someone I can understand Vodafone :( .
I was with Vodafone for landline and broadband a few years back. It was an awful experience. I switched back to Eircom and never had any trouble and their customer service is excellent. I had kept my mobile with Vodafone, but a couple of months ago they started pestering me with up to 4 calls a day to switch my landline back to them. So I switched my mobile to eMobile and haven’t looked back since. Never again will I use Vodafone.
The pick up in broadband customers was due to them buying up UTV broadband service. I was one of these people. I was with UTV broadband for 10 years + with maybe one or two problems all that time. When Vodafone took over had two or three problems in the first 3 weeks and then last months bill came in at €70 when my bill should only be €40. I supposedly went over the 300gb fair usage cap that they never informed me of. So their unlimited is anything but. They were kind enough to offer me an extra 150gb though for an extra €6 eh no thank you. My UTV contract was not honoured I will be dropping them like a hot stone today luckily I didn’t sign up to a contract with them. I’m also taking 3 Vodafone mobile users in the house to a different service provider today. Their offers are crap their customer reps are very polite but do nothing for you and that’s not good enough. Good to see people are opting to go to other service providers if they are not satisfied. This can only be a good thing.
Vodafone are the most expensive but to be fair it works i never loose coverage. I would change and save up to €60 per month but unlimited Broadband and calls isn’t much good if you don’t have coverage !
They seem to me to be the best of a bad lot !! Iv yet to find good customer service from any phone provider
Am leaving as soon as my contract is up
There was me thinking of moving back to them as meteor network coverage has gone down hill as has their 3G
Their fixed land line broadband is lousy.
They just retail Eircom’s.
Most of the fixed line broadband issues are home-user issues such as…
Telephone lines left unfiltered in the back of Sky boxes, burglary alarms and extension phones.
Sorting these, checking these out first usually sorts out the issues with fixed line broadband.
In a few instances rural fencer systems can interfere with lines – check this out by picking up the phone and pressing 1. A few seconds of of a window may reveal a crackling or snapping on the line. If so, then your line is “dirty” and causes slow or regularly disconnecting broadband.
In a rare case the port in your local exchange may be dodgy – and this is eircom’s duty to repair that.
Checking for fixed line broadband involves:
1 Bad router?
2 Bad internal wiring or unfiltered devices on the line#
3 Bad line
4 Bad exchange port
Best of luck!
When I was upgrading to eFibre, the Eircom technician rewired to whole house for me free of charge. It had the original P&T wiring in it. Even though he didn’t have to.
Left them after 15 years, could never get through to customer services, was paying 55 euro for 100 mins and texts and 1gb data. I always went over on the data and my bill ended up bring 75 euro a month. Switched to eMobile unlimited calls and data for 24 euro.
I’ve being with Vodafone for years and have nothing but praise for them very quick to respond and sort out any issues I have had …..even when phone in for repair always giving a like for like loan…..
The only issue I have with vodafone is that the plan I’m on is a little over priced, maybe if they knocked off €10 or increased data by another 2GB then that would make more sense, I’m sure they will do something in the near future, but I have to say that their 3G coverage is very good, I don’t mind paying what I’m paying as I know that I’m going to get coverage when I’m traveling, there is the odd time you lose coverage but for the most Vodafone seems to be the best.
Myself, the hubby, son and daughter all left vodafone recently after being with them for morr than 12 years because the customer service in ome of their shops was shite.
Three are the best really unlimited Internet free messages and calls
Personally I’ve used a couple of networks over the years and have settled on Vodafone… I just think they have the best service although they are more expensive to be fair.. I have never had an issue contacting customer service or had any wait longer than a minute to speak to someone and they have always been able to sort out whatever issues I was having but maybe I’m just lucky by the look of other comments.. I know I could get a cheaper plan elsewhere but I have had horrible customer service experiences with 3 and O2 in the past so I am quite happy to pay the bit extra for customer service that I personally find to be brilliant.. What I would say is vodafones 4g coverage is brilliant but on their 4g broadband plans the data limit is 20gb which is crazy low for such a high speed connection!
Ill be leaving Vodafone once my contract is up. Their service is unbelievable. They treat their customers like crap and wont help in anyway if they think they can get away with it. I experienced this last year, without detail, i was onto management and ignored, twitter/Facebook which they made a public reply to say send my details onto them which i did then they ignored me again. Best way to deal with these companies is leave them its your only voice. My parents and wife are also leaving so they will be down 100′s of € a yr now.
3 prepay. if you need anything else than that then you are doing it wrong.
I recently upgraded my phone with Vodafone and my wife did the same. It was impossible to contact anyone in customer care to get her old phone unlocked (network unlocking code). I used the Vodafone on-line system and entered the IMEI number of the handset. I heard nothing after two weeks. Went back on line and did it again. Nothing. Eventually I went to a Vodafone shop and spoke to a human being who told me the number to ring (which I had rung many times before) and which numbers to press to get though to a human being. It worked. I spoke to someone who input the relevant details and I received my unlocking details about five days later. He also told me that their on-line system for unlocking didn’t work. Astonishing for a commercial company. Finally, since upgrading to new phones our 2g and 3g coverage in our area of South Dublin is appalling and we regularly lose coverage in the house and even outside the house in close proximity. Not sure if any mobile operator is any better to be honest.
I left because 3 gives me Unlimited 4g internet for 20 quid a month with a 1 month contract. I must have used about 150GB this month from tethering 5 devices in the house to my phone. If I was still on Vodafone I’d owe them about 200quid. Sort of a no brainer.
Glad to see others complaining about the lack of coverage over the last two years. I had enough of it and ended up contacting Comreg. They’ve upgraded almost all the masts in town and surrounding areas over the past 2 months and service is noticeably better but it shouldn’t have taken a dip either.
I’m in Australia at the moment and I tell ya one thing a carrier pigeon would be more use than Vodafone Australia and I thought Vodafone Ireland were bad. Thankfully it’s been upgraded now but this article might help them see how people are dissatisfied
And they been losing another one the second my contract is up!!
I was one of them 7,000 and what a big mistake I made im only 10 months into my contract and so wish I hadnt moved from bad to worse.
Too expensive
20 years with them and they got greedy charging me for fone calls I didnt make or receive abroad. ye deserve to sink cheating honest people out of money especially when I was over the Atlantic when I supposedly made these calls and they didnt do anything about it :-/
Shite network
Strange that the more money these big companies make ,the less people they want to employ .
it doesn’t surprise me they’re losing this many customers on mobile. my girlfriend is locked into a 2 year contract and is counting the days she can leave. but if i have any advice, don’t sign up for they’re broadband like we did 18 months ago! they have sneakily ripped us off on several occasions and to get through to customer care has been pretty much impossible most of the times. the girl on the other end, when my girlfriend did get through, laughed at her when she complained! joke of a company, when our contracts are up, they’re gone
They completely over charge, and If you go to one of their franchised stores you could be signing anything, sure one of their main franchised stores in the South East is known for signing customers to contracts with add on’s they didn’t request or require …. Best bet is stay well clear
Cannot wait until my 24mt contract is up… but not till May 2015 !!!
Shite Customer Service… I end up resolving the issues my self… my data goes over every 2/3 month,even tho im not doing anything diff… never refund, never expain… Just say its my fault…
By May 2015, im sure all the irish carriers will have 4G up and running… #SoLongVodafone
Left Vodafone six wks ago due to poor reception. I had been with them for almost 15 yrs but could take no more. Eircom is next on my list. Their broadband in rural areas is a total joke. I was without broadband for 3 months this summer but after numerous calls their customer service said they were only able to reimburse me for one month. Amateurs.
I can’t wait for my contract to be up i
find them too cocky for their own good.
You can never get the exact time you have left on free calls or messages takes days to record all to get you to pay more i’ve been with them for 11 years but have had enough
I’ve been with vodafone for years, never really had any issues with them but my wifi at home is slow and unreliable so when I heard about 3′s all you can eat data deal I decided to switch (I was getting 7.5 GB with vodafone for the same price) Sadly it was a big mistake, there is literally no coverage out where I live, I can rarely even use the data in my house and when I eventually do manage to connect i’m getting .4 mbs and slower on E or if i’m lucky H, very very rarely do I get 4g (unless i’m in the city where there is wifi everywhere anyway) now granted I do live out in a rural area but even when I go to bigger towns and villages (such as Oranmore and clarinbridge) I still don’t get great coverage and often get no coverage at all, it seems as though you only really get proper data if you’re in very populated central areas in the country, so take the ”all you can eat data” with a grain of salt because what’s the point in having unlimited data if you can’t even use it most of the time. Vodafone on the other hand actually have very good coverage, even in the middle of nowhere I can generally always connect and the speeds are generally always good, right now in my house i’m getting 13mb download with my vodafone sim compared to .4 mbs with my 3 sim. So in short yes vodafone may be more expensive but they provide a way better service in my opinion, unless you live near a city centre or don’t care about data avoid 3, this is just my experience though maybe others have had more luck with 3 but I have seen stats to back up what i’m saying, vodafone just have better coverage and faster speeds, bottom line.
Used to be with them for broadband but they were too expensive. Went to eircom they were too slow UPC is just right.
Used to be with Vodafone for mobile switched to meteor cause I get 7.5GB of internet for €10 of my credit plus free calls to meteor peeps and €10 left cause I top up by 20 always
I am waiting since April for them to fix an issue for me, they keep promising to fix it and call me back not once have I got that call back. Customers service managers are the worst I’ve ever come across. I now have to try Comreg to see if they can help me.
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