Telecom company Vodafone Romania posted service revenues of EUR 177 million in the last quarter of 2013, a growth of 0.4 percent on the same period of 2012, according to the company.

Revenues from mobile data went up by 22.3 percent during the last quarter of 2013, when the average revenue per user – ARPU – was of EUR 6.4, which was a drop of 5.3 percent.

End – 2013, Vodafone had 8.3 million clients – counted as active SIM cards-, a growth of 132,000 clients compared to the third quarter of the same year. Post – paid – or subscriptions – made 40 percent of the client base, and the rest were pre-paid card users.

“The Christmas period has brought us the biggest smartphone sales in the history of our company,” said Inaki Berroeta, CEO of Vodafone Romania.

Late last year, Vodafone said it would invest EUR 55 million in its network of stores across Romania in the coming two years. The money will be spent both on opening new stores, and in expanding the 4G network.

The telecom company wants to expand via franchise, which will apply both to its existing 200 stores, and to the stores which will open in the future. Basically Vodafone will offer entrepreneurs the option to take one of its existing stores under franchise. So far, Vodafone already has placed seven such stores under franchise, and six more will open by the end of this year. Vodafone currently has 610 stores exclusively under this brand, out of which 200 run by the company, and the rest by dealers.

editor@romania-insider.com