Vodafone rings up higher revenue

British mobile phone giant Vodafone on Tuesday announced a rise in quarterly revenues, boosting the company's fortunes as its rivals prepare for mega tie-ups.

Underlying revenues rose 1.2 percent in the three months to September 30, above analyst expectations.

"Our customers are benefiting from the significant investments we are making in high speed mobile and fixed networks, as evidenced by the huge growth in demand for data and the increased loyalty to Vodafone services," said chief executive Vittorio Colao.

In Britain, the company’s largest rivals are joining forces -- O2 with Three, while BT Group is in the process of buying EE in the face of fierce competition.

Vodafone on Tuesday added that it slumped into a first-half net loss owing to exceptional tax costs linked to operations mainly in Luxembourg.

The world's second largest operator in its sector after China Mobile recorded a loss after tax of £1.698 billion ($2.56 billion, 2.39 billion euros) in the six months to September 30 compared with a net profit of £5.422 billion one year earlier.

Analysts overlooked the loss to concentrate on revenue growth.

"Mobile telecommunications company Vodafone reported a surprising set of second quarter results, as service revenues rose 1.2 percent which was well above the 0.8 percent expected" by the market, said Ian Forrest, investment research analyst at The Share Centre.

"This is likely to be due to management reshuffling, improving European markets and investment in its network."