Orange holds steady course

The company today reported an increase in its global customer base of 1.27m in the first three months of the year to 40.5m - an increase of 22% over the last twelve months, and slightly higher than analyst expectations of 900,000 to 970,000 users.

In the UK, where Orange says it rose to a leading position last year, the operator added 248,000 new customers - up 38% on the previous quarter. The rise also compares favourably with that of Orange's main rival Vodafone, which reported last week that it added a mere 22,000 customers in the UK in the same period, down from 579,000 in the same period in 2001.

Regarding average revenues per user (ARPU) - the key benchmark following saturation of the market - Orange saw its UK customer-spending rise for the first time, to £247, but only by £1. Vodafone, on the other hand, reported ARPU 'stabilisation' after previous declines, with a fall from £278 to £276 in the first three months of the year.

More promising for Orange was that its take from data services, including text messaging, continued to increase, contributing 13.6% of its UK revenues in the three-month period compared to 11.2% last year.



Overall, the firm posted a 16 percent rise in first-quarter sales to EU3.956bn (£2.48bn), in line with analyst expectations of between EU3.9bn and EU4.2bn.

Commenting on the results, Orange's new deputy CEO and COO Graham Howe said: "As we reach high levels of mobile penetration and growing customer maturity, we see higher wirefree usage as mobile increasingly becomes the primary voice communication device for our customers."

"Step by step, we expect to see average usage and revenues to grow further as new services, handsets and other wirefree devices are launched. No one expects this to be an overnight process."

Separately, Howe, formerly deputy CEO and CFO, was appointed to his new position today, with Simon Duffy taking over as CFO. Both appointments will become effective on 7 May.

At the time of writing, Orange's shares stood unchanged at 405p.

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