Vodafone, the mobile giant with a presence in more than 40 countries, took a 3.5 per cent hit on its service revenue, but its emerging markets businesses continued to grow.
The latest Vodafone quarterly results are for the period ending June 30 and compare figures from the same period the previous year.
In Egypt, service revenue increased by 8.2 per cent, while Vodafone Ghana’s grew by 21.7 per cent.
The financial report put growth in Egypt down to an increasing customer base, while in Ghana “the success of data bundles” was highlighted as well as a growing subscriber base.
Vittorio Colao, Vodafone Group’s chief executive, said: “We have made a good start to the year in our areas of strategic focus: growth in emerging markets has accelerated.”
The Vodacom Group, made up of operations in South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), grew its service revenue by 3.2 per cent, despite the South Africa operation falling by 0.1 per cent.
Operations in markets such as India and Qatar also performed well by increasing by 13.8 per cent and 31.1 per cent respectively.
The group, which made a reported service revenue of £10.1 billion (US$15.5 billion) in the last quarter, suffered most in Southern Europe, where the Euro crisis continues to impact on operations.
Year on year, Vodafone’s service revenue took a 10.6 per cent hit in that region, while in the Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific (AMAP) region it reported a 2.5 per cent increase.
Its Northern and Central Europe region experienced the greatest increase with 8.8 per cent.
