Vodafone Enjoys Good European 3G Sales - Music A Hit

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Vodafone Group PLC (VOD), the U.K.-based mobile telecommunications company, said Wednesday it enjoyed good sales of its third-generation, or 3G, services in Europe and will issue an update on the new service in May.

Vodafone launched 3G services late in 2004, in time for the important Christmas market. 3G allows higher bandwidth services such as downloading Internet files, playing video clips and making video calls, as well as cheaper voice calls and text messaging.

Vodafone Chief Executive Arun Sarin told a conference call of journalists that it is still early days and the company will update the market when it reports full-year results in May.

"We're very pleased with how people are using it," he said.

Sarin said Vodafone subscribers have downloaded over 600,000 music tracks on 3G.

He said the company will launch new 3G handsets and services in 2005, and it remains comfortable with its target for 10 million 3G customers by March 2006.

Company Web site: http://www..com

-By Nic Fildes, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9264; nicolas.fildes@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 26th January 2005