Vodafone Ireland customers spent an average of €553 last year on mobile calls and text messages, significantly more than subscribers to any other Vodafone subsidiary outside Japan.
Figures published yesterday show Vodafone's 1.74 million Irish subscribers paid an average of €150 per year more than their British counterparts and €240 more than German subscribers in the 12 months to the end of March 2003.
The strong results, and Vodafone's failure to publish data on the amount of time people use their mobiles for each month, will raise further suspicions that mobile prices here are excessive.
Last week the fixed line telecoms lobby group ALTO accused mobile phone companies of ripping off consumers and called on O2 and Vodafone to publish user data to justify their huge profits.
MmO2, the parent of O2 Ireland, published these usage figures last week for its European operations but Vodafone chose not to release this data yesterday.
Vodafone Ireland chief executive Mr Paul Donovan said Vodafone did not publish usage figures because it was not policy.
"I don't think it is necessary to open my books up when we already do pricing surveys with the OECD," added Mr Donovan.
But he rejected suggestions that mobile phone tariffs were too high in the Republic. Rather, people use their mobiles more here than in Europe because they offer better value, he added.
Mr Iarla Flynn, chairman of ALTO, said the decision not to publish the usage figures was very disappointing. Most people would conclude this was due to the high tariffs charged, he said.
In fact, Vodafone Ireland published only very limited financial information yesterday, which did not include earnings or profit.
These show the subsidiary added 36,000 subscribers in the 12 months to the end of March 2003 and average revenue per user increased by €19 to €553. Revenue from text messages and internet accounted for 19.1 per cent of revenues during the year.
These figures show Vodafone Ireland will generate about €1 billion in revenues over the next 12 months on current performance.
Results posted earlier this year to the Company's Registration Office in Dublin show Vodafone Ireland reported record pre-tax profits of €155 million in the 12-month period to March 2002.
