Vodafone customers called while abroad 50% more frequently this year

During this year's summer holidays, Vodafone customers called while abroad 50% more frequently, and calls were up to a third longer in duration, in comparison with last year. The growth of roaming calls was especially influenced by an increase in the number of users of the Vodafone Passport service, which over 100 thousand Vodafone customers have activated since May 2007. Vodafone customers on holiday called most frequently from EU countries (73%) and from Croatia (16%).

"Vodafone Passport is changing customer attitudes towards roaming; the duration of roaming calls made by those who use the service is the same, or longer than, the average duration of domestic calls made within our network," says Chris Robbins, Vice-President of Marketing, Vodafone Czech Republic.

The comparison of roaming calls made by Vodafone customers from the ten most frequented roaming destinations in July-August of 2006 and 2007 indicates that:

• the average duration of outgoing and incoming calls has increased by 15% (outgoing calls) and 42% (incoming calls) in comparison to last year
• the average outgoing call made with Vodafone Passport (3 min. 11 sec.) was twice as long as the average with Vodafone World (1 min. 42 sec.)
• the average incoming call made with Vodafone Passport (4 min. 22 sec.) was twice as long as the average with Vodafone World (1 min. 51 sec.)
• the total amount of outgoing roaming minutes increased by 58%; incoming roaming minutes increased by 63%
• the number of Vodafone roaming service users increased by roughly 20%

Over the summer holidays, Vodafone customers made calls to Slovakia, and while in Croatia and Germany, the most.