Our financial performance continued 14 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2026
Strategic report
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UK
Customers Our mobile contract customer base declined by 127,000 during the year (Q3: 73,000, Q4: 22,000) including the disconnection of 53,000 very low value Business SIMs and Three UK customer losses. Our best-in-class customer experience supported customer loyalty, which materially improved across all our Consumer brands during the year. Our 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). Our broadband customer base increased by 222,000 in FY26 (Q3: 64,000, Q4: 64,000) and we added 56,000 fixed wireless access customers in FY26 (Q3: 11,000, Q4: 20,000), reported in the mobile segment. We have been one of the fastest growing broadband providers in the UK during the year, offering gigabit speeds to over 23 million households. In June 2025, we announced a wholesale strategic agreement with Community Fibre in London. In July 2025, we launched our industry leading ‘Just Ask Once’ customer care promise for Vodafone customers. In November 2025, we introduced our ‘Vodafone Together Family’ plan, which enables households to combine mobile and broadband services and rewards, alongside ‘Vodafone Secure Net’, our market leading security platform. In April 2026, we launched our ‘5G Slicing’ proposition for business customers, delivering enhanced and dependable mobile connectivity with guaranteed performance for enterprises, as a part of our strategy to further monetise our network differentiation.
Fixed service revenue increased 0.3% and organic growth in fixed service revenue was 3.1% (Q3: 4.8%, Q4: 0.8%) with strong growth in Consumer broadband, supported by higher ARPU and a larger customer base, partially offset by a decline in Business due to the impact of planned managed services contract terminations. The slowdown in service revenue growth in the fourth quarter was due to lower Business project activity, including a strategic change by a large customer. Vodafone Business service revenue declined 2.3%. On an organic basis, Vodafone Business service revenue decreased 4.5% (Q3: -5.4%, Q4: -7.8%), due to the impact of planned managed services contract terminations during FY26 and continued mobile ARPU pressure from lower inflation-linked price increases and contract renewals. There was also lower Business project activity, including a strategic change by a large customer. Adjusted EBITDAaL increased 20.7%, and on an organic basis, Adjusted EBITDAaL increased 4.5%, driven by strong Consumer broadband and Wholesale margin growth, only partially offset by higher operating expenses from inflation and network expansion. The Adjusted EBITDAaL margin decreased 1.5 percentage points year-on-year to 20.5%, and on an organic basis grew 1.4 percentage points year-on-year.
Customers Due to continued competitive intensity in the mobile market, our contract customer base declined by 103,000 during the year (Q3: 11,000, Q4: -77,000), including 88,000 from Business. Our branded Consumer customer base was broadly stable during the year, supported by our continued focus on customer experience, as we delivered our best ever customer satisfaction results, with improvement across all products in mobile and fixed. We connected a further 9.5 million IoT devices, driven by continued good demand from the automotive sector. Our broadband customer base declined by 202,000 in FY26 (Q3: -63,000, Q4: -90,000), including the loss of 136,000 customers on our gigabit network (Q3: -47,000, Q4: -59,000). The decline was primarily due to our focus on value optimisation as we continue to drive ARPU growth for new customers. We continue to be the largest provider of fixed line gigabit connectivity in Germany, as we market gigabit speeds to almost 75% of German homes with 5 million fibre households beyond our own cable footprint of 25 million households. Our OXG joint venture’s buildout is continuing to progress with almost 600,000 homes passed and we are now able to market to 1.5 million homes. Our TV customer base declined by 20,000 (Q3: -6,000, Q4: -104,000). The structural decline in demand for standalone linear TV services was partially offset by our strategy to bundle basic TV with our broadband services.
Reported growth %
Organic growth 1 %
FY26 €m
FY25 €m
Total revenue 9,192 7,069 30.0 Service revenue 7,597 5,887 29.0 0.3 Other revenue 1,595 1,182 Adjusted EBITDAaL 1,881 1,558 20.7 4.5 Adjusted EBITDAaL margin 20.5% 22.0% Note: 1. Organic growth is a non-GAAP measure. See page 226 for more information. Growth Total revenue increased 30.0% to €9.2 billion due to the consolidation of Three UK’s financial results following the completion of the merger on 31 May 2025. Service revenue increased 29.0%, and organic service revenue grew 0.3% (Q3: -0.5%, Q4: -0.2%), as growth in Consumer and Wholesale, reflecting strong commercial momentum during the year, was partially offset by decline in Business. Mobile service revenue increased 40.0%. Organic growth in mobile service revenue was -0.4% (Q3: -1.8%, Q4: -0.5%), as the continued Business ARPU pressure and delivery of project milestones in the prior year, were only partially offset by strong wholesale revenue growth. The improvement in Q4 growth was supported by stronger performance of Three UK brand, with improvement in both Consumer contract ARPU and customer loyalty, as well as higher wholesale revenue.
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