Vodafone Romania, the local subsidiary of British telecom group Vodafone, lost 72,000 mobile customers in the second quarter of the current fiscal year, which ended on September 30, 2014.

The company had 7.91 million mobile customers at the end of September 2014, compared to almost 8 million at the end of June. Since end-December 2013, Vodafone lost about 400,000 mobile clients, according to data released by Vodafone Group in its quarterly report.

Vodafone Romania also had some 58,000 fixed broadband customers at the end of September 2014, 5,000 more than at the end of December 2013.

While the number of customers declined, the activity of the existing clients increased. The total voice minutes used by the company’s customers reached a new high of 5.6 billion, in the quarter ended September 30, 2014, which is 2.2% more than in the previous quarter (ended June 30) and 11.4% more than in the same quarter of last year.

Data usage increased even more, reaching almost 4,000 terabytes (TB) in the July 1 – September 30 period. This is 21% more than in the previous three months and 63% more than in the same three months of last year.

Vodafone Romania’s mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) reached EUR 6.2 over the last three months, corresponding to a 4.7% increase, compared to previous quarter. Compared to the same quarter of last year, ARPU was down by 4.6%, mainly due to the cut in mobile termination rates.

Service revenue in the quarter decreased by 5.3% on an organic basis, to EUR 167.6 million, as compared to same quarter of last year following the significant decrease of mobile termination rates, by 69%, effective April 1, 2014. Excluding the impact of mobile termination rates decrease, Vodafone Romania’s service revenue grew by 8%, as compared to same period of last year, on an organic basis, the company said.

Vodafone Romania is currently focusing on increasing its mobile data clients base, which is becoming the main revenue source for the company.

“We continue to focus on mobile data adoption and to provide our users the best network experience. Our 4G coverage has increased to 81% of the urban population and, as a result, we have nearly doubled the number of customers on 4G price plans in our overall base, over the past quarter. In September we also launched Supernet, meant to provide our users with the best experience both on 4G and 3G. One of the biggest impact of Supernet we’ve seen is that data traffic carried on smartphones increased significantly, by more than 150%, as compared to same quarter of last year,” said Ravinder Takkar, President & CEO, Vodafone Romania.

Vodafone is the second largest mobile carrier in Romania. In the first half of the fiscal year (April 1 – September 30, 2014), Vodafone’s revenue in Romania was EUR 346 million, down by 9% compared to the same period of the previous year. The company’s EBITDA declined by 11%, to EUR 122 million, and the adjusted operating result was down by 21%, to EUR 51 million, according to Vodafone’s quarterly report.

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Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com