Vodafone reveals UK sales boost as it prepares to merge with Three

The global telecoms group is also seeking to strike a deal for its Italian division.

Vodafone has seen a rise in UK sales as it gains more mobile and broadband customers, ahead of its planned merger with Three UK by year's end. However, the company's biggest market, Germany, saw only a slight increase in service revenue due to price hikes leading to customer switches. The telecoms giant also revealed plans for a deal involving its Italian division.

In the last quarter, Vodafone's UK service revenue grew by 5.2% compared to the same period last year. This includes thousands of new contracted customers for its mobile network and growth in its broadband customer base. Despite this, the global business saw a dip in reported sales by 2.3%, even though total revenues grew organically by 4.2%.

The proposed merger between Vodafone and Three UK is set to be scrutinised by the UK's competition regulator over concerns it could limit options for mobile customers.

Vodafone is giving customers more choice and value, which will make the market more competitive. They're also selling parts of their business, like their Spanish branch, to have more money and do better as a company.

They plan to cut about 11,000 jobs in three years to make their global business simpler. They've already finished cutting about a third of these jobs.

The boss, Margherita Della Valle, mentioned that Vodafone is talking about a possible deal in Italy.

She shared: "We maintained good service revenue momentum in the third quarter across both Europe and Africa, supported by a further acceleration of Vodafone Business, with our cloud and Internet of Things services growing over 20%."

"Our announced transactions in the UK and Spain are progressing well, and we are in active discussions in Italy."

"We've also begun strategic partnerships with Microsoft and Accenture to fast-track our transformation."