Europe UK : Vodafone Group Plc announces key performance indicators for the quarter ended 31 December 2005. The main highlights are:

* Good overall operating performance in challenging markets

* Strong growth in customers with 7.1 million proportionate organic net additions, 30% higher than for the same quarter last year. Total proportionate net additions were 8.3 million, bringing the total proportionate customer base to 179.3 million

* Continued growth in 3G in the Christmas quarter with 3.1 million 3G devices added. The total 3G device base is now 8.0 million in the Group's subsidiaries and joint ventures and a further 1.1 million in the Group's associates

* Organic growth of 8.0% for the quarter in total proportionate mobile revenue and 7.0% in proportionate mobile service revenue year on year. On a statutory basis, growth in mobile service revenue was 5.4%, with organic growth of 4.3%

* Vodafone reiterates its current year guidance. The Group expects organic growth for this financial year in proportionate mobile revenue in the middle of the 6% to 9% range. Vodafone also expects the organic proportionate mobile EBITDA margin for this financial year to be at the lower end of the flat to 1 percentage point lower range

* Vodafone's preliminary outlook for the next financial year remains unchanged

Arun Sarin ( inset above ), Chief Executive of Vodafone, commented:

'Vodafone has delivered a good operational performance in a challenging environment. Sales of 3G devices accelerated in the Christmas quarter and we continue to see encouraging take-up of data services. Our major markets have seen increasing competitor activity, whilst our emerging market businesses have reported strong growth. We expect to deliver full year results in line with our existing guidance and our preliminary outlook for next year remains unchanged.'

UK

The UK market remains highly competitive, with the last quarter experiencing continued pricing pressure from both network operators and MVNOs, together with strong seasonal promotions.

Against that background, Vodafone UK registered 561,000 net additions, with 84% on prepaid tariffs compared with 80% for the same quarter last year reflecting traditional seasonal activity. The closing base reached 16.3 million, up 7% year on year. Vodafone UK maintained its focus on higher value customers with over 75% of consumer contract gross additions selecting 18 month contracts.

Closing
3G devices increased by 66% from September to 725,000.

Annualised blended churn for the quarter improved to 31.9% from 33.1% in September, with continued improvement in contract churn, which is now lower than the same period last year.

Blended ARPU for the quarter was down 4.3% year on year, reflecting changes in pricing during 2005 to improve competitiveness in the market, a higher inactivity rate in prepaid and the impact of an increase in multiple devices within the corporate segment due to continued growth in the sale of Vodafone Mobile Connect datacards and hand-held business devices. Total minutes of use were up nearly 10% year on year, driven by a 7.3% increase in average customers and a 2.2% increase in voice usage per customer.

Service revenue growth was 2.7% for the quarter compared to approximately 5.0% in the quarter to September, after adjusting for the impact of changes in termination rates. Service revenue growth was also impacted by the effect of price declines and slower customer growth, a greater proportion of which was from prepaid. Whilst these factors contributed to stable voice revenue year on year, non-voice revenue grew by 13.2% with 52% growth in non-messaging data revenue, benefiting from increasing penetration of 3G devices.

Net acquisition and retention costs as a percentage of service revenue were lower than the same quarter last year, despite a higher number of gross additions. Higher volumes of customer acquisitions, driven by prepaid, were generated at lower unit costs. Upgrade volumes were stable year on year but the increase in 3G activity led to a slight rise in unit cost.