Europe : Vodafone Group Plc (“Vodafone”) announces today key performance indicators for the quarter ended 31 December 2004.

Inset is Arun Sarin, Chief Executive of Vodafone quoted below.

The main highlights are:

•Strongest quarter of net additions since December 2000 with over 5.4 million organic net additions, bringing the total proportionate customer base to over 151.8 million

•Highest quarter ever for new Vodafone live! customers of 3.9 million, bringing global Vodafone live! controlled customer base to 28.3 million, including 12.9 million in Japan

•ARPU trends continued to develop in line with expectations; non-voice services increased to 16.7% of controlled service revenue

•Successful launch of Vodafone live! with 3G across 13 markets

•In total, over 400,000 Vodafone Mobile Connect customers, including over 170,000 3G enabled customers

•2.4 billion shares repurchased in the financial year to date at a cost of £3.2 billion Arun Sarin, Chief Executive of Vodafone, commented: “I am very pleased to announce another impressive quarter for customer and revenue growth. We have seen consistently strong performances across Europe and in the US, whilst we continue to focus on our turnaround programme in Japan.

In the last quarter we saw record new Vodafone live! customer additions in our controlled base of 3.9 million, which contributed to a total of over 28 million customers across our controlled networks. This highlights our success in attracting and migrating customers to new services. Our customer proposition is enhanced by Vodafone live! with 3G and we have seen positive early indications following our launch in November.

Overall these KPIs are in line with our expectations and we maintain our guidance for the full year to
March 2005.”

United Kingdom
Vodafone UK added 641,000 net customers in the quarter, taking the total base to 15.2 million customers, an increase of over 9% since last year. Churn has continued its improving trend due to ongoing focus on customer retention and loyalty initiatives. Blended annual ARPU reduced to £314 from £318 for the year to December compared to the year to September 2004, principally due to the impact of the reduction in incoming call termination rates of approximately 30% effective from 1 September 2004.

The growth in average customers more than offset the fall in ARPU and led to a 3% growth in service revenue for the quarter when compared to the same quarter last year. Excluding the effect of the reduction in termination rates, service revenue grew by around 7% in the quarter. Non-voice services as a percentage of service revenue for the year to December 2004 were 17.9%, up from 15.5% for the year to December 2003, with Vodafone live! customers now exceeding 3 million.

Net acquisition and retention costs as a percentage of service revenue in the quarter were stable compared to the same period last year, but higher than the quarter to September 2004 due to seasonal promotional activity.

Germany Net customer additions of 843,000 demonstrated continued strong growth in Germany and resulted in a closing base of 26.9 million customers, with churn remaining stable compared to the previous quarter.

Blended annual ARPU for the year to December was €303 compared to €305 for the year to September 2004, reflecting the impact of lower spending new customers. Bundled minute plans continued to be successful and have a positive impact on ARPU.

Strong customer growth was the primary driver behind a 6% increase in service revenue for the quarter compared to the same quarter last year. Non-voice services as a percentage of service revenue for the year to December 2004 were 17.7%, up from 17.2% for the year to December 2003, benefiting from the increase in Vodafone live! customers to 4.3 million.

Net acquisition and retention costs as a percentage of service revenue in the quarter were lower than the same period last year, but higher than the quarter to September 2004 due to seasonal promotional activity.