Vodafone reports 10 million Vodafone Passport customers

Vodafone Leading the Mobile Industry in Reducing the Cost of Retail and Wholesale Roaming in Europe

19 September 2006 - Vodafone announces today that 10 million of its customers have signed up for Vodafone Passport, Vodafone’s roaming service which enables customers to take their domestic price plan abroad for a small connection fee per call. This represents more than a third of all roaming customers having taken up the service since its launch in May 2005. More than 150,000 customers are joining Vodafone Passport every week.

Vodafone Passport was developed to meet customer demands for better value roaming with clear and simple pricing. Data for June and July 2006 shows that Passport customers are paying around 50% less per minute for their voice roaming calls when compared to the average cost of roaming in Summer 2005. The average cost of a voice roaming call for these customers is now below EUR 0.45 per minute.

Overall cost of roaming down 20%
Following Vodafone’s May 2006 commitment to reduce the average cost of roaming by 40% by April 2007 when compared to Summer 2005, Vodafone confirms today that average roaming prices for all Vodafone roaming customers were already over 20% lower during June and July 2006 compared to Summer 2005.

More than 50% of Vodafone’s European wholesale traffic to be priced at EUR 0.45 per minute or less
Vodafone also confirms that it has agreement with other operators to reduce wholesale prices to EUR 0.45 per minute or less on a reciprocal basis and that the operators with whom it has such agreement represent more than 50% of Vodafone’s European wholesale traffic. This follows Vodafone’s May 2006 commitment to offer reduced wholesale rates to enable better value roaming for all mobile customers across Europe.

Roaming Price Text Information Service
To provide even better price transparency for customers when they travel abroad, Vodafone also announces today its intention to launch a roaming price text information service across its European markets before Summer 2007. The service will be modelled on Vodafone UK’s existing service, which enables customers to send a short text message to receive information about the cost of making a call or sending a text in the country they are visiting.

Arun Sarin, Chief Executive, Vodafone, said:
“Our customers want simplicity, predictability and value when they travel abroad. Vodafone is committed to delivering services which meet these needs. Today’s figures clearly demonstrate our success and show that Vodafone continues to lead the industry in roaming. I am delighted that more and more of our customers are choosing Vodafone Passport.”

Notes to Editors

Vodafone’s commitment to reducing roaming costs

On 8 May 2006, Vodafone committed to reducing the cost of European roaming by:

* Reducing the average retail cost of roaming to Vodafone customers by 40% by April 2007 when compared to Summer 2005.
* Offering to enter into reciprocal wholesale agreements with any European operator at an average charge of no more than EUR 0.45 per minute for voice calls within the EU from October 2006.

Vodafone Passport

* Launched in May 2005 and now available in 13 Vodafone markets
* A free opt-in service, Vodafone Passport offers customers their home price plan abroad for a small connection fee per call eg a UK customer would be charged 75p per call and their domestic rate thereafter.
* Vodafone Passport offers significant savings to standard roaming price plans. For example, a UK customer with an Anytime 200 price plan could call home from Italy and chat for four minutes, paying just 75p using their bundled minutes. Previously, this would have cost GBP 3.00.

Text Information Service - how it works
A Vodafone UK customer visiting Spain who wanted to know how much it would cost to phone the UK from Spain would text FROM SPAIN to 4636 and would be sent a text detailing how much it would cost to make and receive calls and send texts whilst in Spain. Vodafone intends for this service, ultimately, to be free to customers.

About Vodafone
Vodafone is the world’s leading international mobile telecommunications group with equity interests in 27 countries across 5 continents with 186.8 million proportionate customers worldwide as at 30 June 2006 as well as 33 partner networks. For further information, please visit www.vodafone.com

Contact Information

Jon Earl

Senior Group Media Relations Manager

Vodafone Group

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