| 3G broadband |
3G services enabled with high speed downlink packet access (‘HSDPA’) technology which enables data transmission at speeds of up to 7.2 megabits per second. |
| ARPU |
Service revenue excluding fixed line revenue, fixed advertising revenue, revenue related to business managed services and revenue from certain tower sharing arrangements divided by average customers. |
| Capital expenditure |
This measure includes the aggregate of capitalised property, plant and equipment additions and capitalised software costs. |
| Churn |
Total gross customer disconnections in the period divided by the average total customers in the period. |
| Contribution margin |
The contribution margin is stated after direct costs, acquisition and retention costs and ongoing commissions. |
| Controlled and jointly controlled |
Controlled and jointly controlled measures include 100% for the Group’s mobile operating subsidiaries and the Group’s proportionate share for joint ventures. |
| Customer costs |
Customer costs include acquisition costs, being the total of connection fees, trade commissions and equipment costs relating to new customer connections, and retention costs, being the total of trade commissions, loyalty scheme and equipment costs relating to customer retention and upgrades, as well as expenses related to ongoing commissions. |
| Customer delight |
The Group uses a proprietary ‘customer delight’ system to track customer satisfaction across its controlled markets and jointly controlled market in Italy. Customer delight is measured by an index based on the results of surveys performed by an external research company which cover all aspects of service provided by Vodafone and incorporates the results of the relative satisfaction of the competitors’ customers. An overall index for the Group is calculated by weighting the results for each of the Group’s operations based on service revenue. |
| Direct costs |
Direct costs include interconnect costs and other direct costs of providing services. |
| DSL |
A digital subscriber line which is a fixed line enabling data to be transmitted at high speeds. |
| Fixed broadband customer |
A fixed broadband customer is defined as a physical connection or access point to a fixed line network. |
| Free cash flow |
Operating free cash flow after cash flows in relation to taxation, interest, dividends received from associates and investments, and dividends paid to non-controlling shareholders in subsidiaries |
| Handheld business device |
A wireless connection device which allows access to business applications and push and pull email. |
| HSDPA |
High speed downlink packet access is a wireless technology enabling network to mobile data transmission speeds of up to 28.8 Mbps. |
| HSUPA |
High speed uplink packet access is a wireless technology enabling mobile to network data transmission speeds of up to 5.8 Mbps. |
| Interconnect costs |
A charge paid by Vodafone to other fixed line or mobile operators when a Vodafone customer calls a customer connected to a different network. |
| Mobile customer |
A mobile customer is defined as a subscriber identity module (‘SIM’), or in territories where SIMs do not exist, a unique mobile telephone number, which has access to the network for any purpose, including data only usage, except telemetric applications. Telemetric applications include, but are not limited to, asset and equipment tracking, mobile payment and billing functionality, e.g. vending machines and meter readings, and include voice enabled customers whose usage is limited to a central service operation, e.g. emergency response applications in vehicles. |
| Mobile PC connectivity device |
A connection device which provides access to 3G services to users with an active PC or laptop connection. This includes Vodafone Mobile Broadband data cards, Vodafone Mobile Connect 3G/GPRS data cards and Vodafone Mobile Broadband USB modems. |
| Net debt |
Long-term borrowings, short-term borrowings and mark-to-market adjustments on financing instruments less cash and cash equivalents. |
| Operating costs |
Operating expenses plus customer costs other than acquisition and retention costs. |
| Operating expenses |
Operating expenses comprise primarily of network and IT related expenditure, support costs from HR and finance and certain intercompany items. |
| Operating free cash flow |
Cash generated from operations after cash payments for capital expenditure (excludes capital licence and spectrum payments) and cash receipts from the disposal of intangible assets and property, plant and equipment. |
| Organic growth |
The percentage movements in organic growth are presented to reflect operating performance on a comparable basis, both in terms of merger and acquisition activity and foreign exchange rates. |
| Partner markets |
Markets in which the Group has entered into a partner agreement with a local mobile operator enabling a range of Vodafone’s global products and services to be marketed in that operator’s territory and extending Vodafone’s brand reach into such new markets. |
| Penetration |
Number of customers in a country as a percentage of the country’s population. Penetration can be in excess of 100% due to customers’ owning more than one SIM. |
| Pro-forma growth |
Pro-forma growth is organic growth adjusted to include acquired business for the whole of both periods. |
| Proportionate mobile customers |
The proportionate customer number represents the number of mobile customers in ventures which the Group either controls or in which it invests, based on the Group’s ownership in such ventures. |
| Reported growth |
Reported growth is based on amounts reported in pounds sterling as determined under IFRS. |
| Service revenue |
Service revenue comprises all revenue related to the provision of ongoing services including, but not limited to, monthly access charges, airtime usage, roaming, incoming and outgoing network usage by non-Vodafone customers and interconnect charges for incoming calls. |
| Smartphones |
A smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities including access to email and the internet. |
| Termination rate |
A per minute charge paid by a telecommunications network operator when a customer makes a call to another mobile or fixed line network operator. |
| Total communications |
Comprises all fixed location services, data services, fixed line services, visitor revenue and other services. |
| Visitor revenue |
Amounts received by a Vodafone operating company when customers of another operator, including those of other Vodafone companies, roam onto its network. |
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