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Vodafone drops 178k customers in 6 months

Hard to shake the Vodafail saga

The Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) union continues to be plagued by customer leakage, after the company's recent results saw it admit 178,000 users abandoned the carrier in the last six months.

The JV now sits on 6.8 million customers, a new two year low, following the 2010 season of network meltdowns.

The carrier has conceded that its massive customer loss is a direct result of months of network failings and below par customer service. Recently-installed VHA CEO Bill Morrow said the company remains committed to rebuilding its operations to prevent this from ever happening again.

“These results speak very clearly to a need to refocus on the quality and consistency of the experience we deliver to our customers,” he said.

The carrier also said it was poised to make announcements regarding LTE network plans for the next year which ar anticipated to start deployment in March and April 2013.

“Our customers can expect to experience improvements in the network and customer service throughout the remainder of 2012,” he said. The carrier has invested over AUD$1 billion in re-mastering its network and is near completion of the new 3G 850MHz network.

The chairman of Hutchison Telecommunications (HTAL) Canning Fok, admitted the company was still working its way through operational setbacks. “We believe the strategy being implemented will return VHA to growth in the future. However, we expect the next 12 months to remain challenging,” he said.

Hutchison suffered a AUD$131.3 million loss in Australia for the half year to June 30 compared to the previous corresponding period. With its share of VHA's total revenue dropping to $1.035 billion.

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