
Broadband and mobile operator Vodafone (VodafoneThree) has just published their latest Q4 FY26 financial results. The figures show that they now have 1.832 million fixed broadband customers (up by 64,000 in Q4 – the same figure as Q3) and a combined mobile base of 28.356 million (down by 263,000).
In terms of their fixed broadband lines, Vodafone once again reported good growth, with a quarterly addition of 64,000 customers – thanks in part to being widely available across Openreach, CommunityFibre (mostly London and the South East) and CityFibre’s UK networks. The provider’s full fibre (FTTP) coverage can now reach a combined total of 23 million UK households (up from 22m last quarter).
As for their mobile base, the combined operator reported a quarterly fall of -22,000 in Pay Monthly customers (vs -73,000 in Q3) and there was another fall of -241,000 in Prepaid / PAYG customers (vs -132k in Q3). In addition, quarterly mobile broadband (data) usage across their UK network fell to 762,694 TeraBytes (down from 771,600 TB last quarter).
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Most of the falls in their mobile base were attributed to disconnection of 53,000 “very low value Business SIMs” and customer losses from the Three UK side of the merged company. But the operator said their “prepaid brands“, VOXI and SMARTY, continued to compete well in the market with 189,000 customer additions in FY26 (Q3: 38,000, Q4: 47,000).
The operator also reported that some 718,000 of their consumer customers were now converged (up by 13k in Q4 vs 15k in Q3) – taking both a broadband and mobile bundle. Finally, Vodafone mentioned that they also added 56,000 fixed wireless access customers in FY26 (Q3: 11,000, Q4: 20,000), which references their 4G/5G home broadband services – the totals for this form part of their wider mobile base.
Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO, said:
“After the transformation of the last three years, we are now a simpler company with a stronger growth outlook.
Our strategic progress has generated good Group service revenue momentum for the year, together with profit and cash flow at the upper end of our guidance range. We returned to top line growth in Germany, alongside strong performances across Africa and in Türkiye. Our early successes from the UK merger integration reinforce our confidence in its potential and I am delighted that we are now gaining full ownership.
Looking ahead, we will continue to drive continuous improvements across our business, with customer experience as our number one priority. We are now well set for mid-term growth.”
Sadly, the results didn’t include a progress update on the operator’s efforts to bring their Vodafone and Three UK mobile networks closer together, such as by allowing customers of both networks to use the best available mast/signal. But there’s also no avoiding the fact that Vodafone’s recent move to take full control of VodafoneThree by aiding CK Hutchinson to exit their stake has been the biggest recent development on this front (here).
Finally, the operator saw their quarterly UK service revenue fall a little to €1,958m (down from €1,975m in the previous quarter). The full report is here (PDF).
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I noticed that Vodafone ‘added 56,000 fixed wireless access customers in FY26 (Q3: 11,000, Q4: 20,000)’. I see this as supplementing its nationwide fixed line user base over Openreach and CityFibre in areas with poor broadband but spare 5G capacity. In contrast I’ve never seen ‘fixed wireless access’ ever mentioned by Virgin Media O2 who sees O2 as the means to push VM’s fixed line network (think VOLT which boosts VM’s broadband speeds to the next available level (up to 1Gbps) and doubles mobile data on O2’s Pay Monthly plans), whilst EE’s strategy seems more like using mobile as an interim service towards FTTP.
not surprised the mobile base is down. i was a customer direct with vodafone mobile for 20+ years. negotiated every time but the prices just crept up+up. so decided to go with lebara, a few months back, ( realise its still vodafone network ) for £1.33pm for 8 months, then £6.90 for 35gb and no price rises and a 1 month contract. so much competition these days with mobiles etc
Nice one. I’ve been with Lebara for years, and reckon there’s no better choice