Vodafone Group said customer growth in its Australasian operations would slow to less than 80,000 new subscribers in the June quarter.
Vodafone Pacific told UBS Warburg at a briefing that net customer connection additions in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji were not expected to reach market expectations of at least 80,000 for the three months from March to June, 2001.
"Their adds for the quarter are very low," an analyst said. "In this market generally there is a slowdown, but the slowdown (for Vodafone) has been pretty rapid."
UBS Warburg has subsequently downgraded its estimates for Vodafone's subscriber growth for the quarter to 60,000.
The figures are a further blow for the mobile giant which has been swamped with speculation it will exit the Australian market after missing out on a bid to take over number two Cable & Wireless Optus.
The carrier's forecasts for the June quarter mark a huge drop compared to average quarterly increases in the past year.
In its latest published figures, Vodafone said the number of net customer connections in Australia alone was 150,000 for the quarter ending March 31, 2000. This compared to 227,000 in the December quarter.
Vodafone, along with other Australian carriers, has switched its focus to profitable growth and higher average revenues per user rather than increasing subscriber numbers.
A Vodafone spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
ABN AMRO said in a recent report that all Australian carriers would not be able to retain mobile subscriber growth because penetration rates had reached 60 percent.
Vodafone is the third-ranked mobile carrier in Australia with a market share of about 19 percent, or 2.11 million subscribers, according to ABN AMRO.
