Vodafone hits 200 million global customer mark

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<div class="rxbodyfield" xmlns:o="urn:www.microsoft.com/office" xmlns:st1="urn:www.microsoft.com/smarttags" xmlns:st2="urn:www.microsoft.com/smarttags2" xmlns:w="urn:www.microsoft.com/word" xmlns:x="urn:www.microsoft.com/excel"><p>In what has been referred to by its chief executive Arun Sarin as &quot;an important milestone&quot;, Vodafone has announced that it now has over 200 million customers, almost 17 million of whom are British.</p><p>Mr Sarin said that the numbers were &quot;very much in line with expectations and show we are continuing to make progress in executing our strategy&quot;.</p><p>&quot;It took us 15 years to get our first 100 million customers,&quot; he told reporters. &quot;It took us five years to get the next 100 million. There is good momentum in the business.&quot;</p><p>Despite a fickle climate and the increased competition in the market, the mobile phone giant also claimed that renewed customer retention activities have enabled it to reduce contract customer churn &#8211; the rate at which customers leave the supplier - in most European countries, including the UK.</p><p>Vodafone&#39;s investment in 3G infrastructure and the possibility of sharing deals with rival operators to help increase service coverage will also help to provide its customers with a better service in future as well as bringing the costs down, according to Maggie Holland, Telecommunications Expert at PC Pro.</p><p>Text messaging was declared as a key part in Vodafone&#39;s financial successes this year, with the UK seeing a year-on-year increase of almost 14% of cash spent on texts. </p><p>There&#39;s plenty of choice so let uSwitch.com help you find the perfect mobile phone. If you&#39;re confused about fancy features, our <a href="http://www.uswitch.com/Mobiles/Handsets/">handset guide will help. Then, when you know what you want, <a href="http://www.uswitch.com/Mobiles/index.aspx?">use our calculator to compare handsets and tariffs</a> and find the one that best suits you and buy online. We&#39;re easy to use, impartial and our service won&#39;t cost you a penny.</p><p> <a href="http://www.adfero.co.uk" target="_blank"><img alt="track" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/dn.gif?feedid=362&amp;itemid=18061572" style="border:0 0 0" />&#169; Adfero Ltd</a></a></p></div>