Vodafone’s billing woes hit UK sales again

Vodafone’s billing woes hit UK sales again but shares bounced earlier on strong growth overseas.

The firm beat City forecasts in the past three months with a 2.2% rise in revenues despite a 3.2% fall in the UK.

Huge billing problems caused by a new IT system have made it the most-complained-about mobiles service.

“We made good progress in the first quarter,” said chief executive Vittorio Colao.

He added: “I’m deeply sorry about what happened to some of UK customers but the complaints decreased by 20% to 30% in the latest quarter. We have put more than 400 extra people in our call centres to deal with it.”

Service revenues across the group were €12.3 billion, with India, up 6.4%, Turkey, 19.5%, and Egypt, 9.4%, driving growth.

European revenues rose just 0.3% but that reflects the cut in roaming charges, which will disappear next year.

The shares rose 8p to 233.2p.