On Thursday Vodafone released a trading update for the quarter ended 31 December 2015 which the company outlined as being a quarter where the company maintained good commercial momentum with strong growth in data usage on their 4G and fibre investments.

Highlights from the update included group organic service revenue up 1.4% in comparison to 1.2% in Q2, which was the businesses sixth consecutive quarter of improved revenue. European net contracts were up 506,000 whilst broadband customers also grew by 311,000.

The company now has 84% 4G coverage in Europe whilst AMAP build targets were achieved. Data usage increased by 68% through 34.8 million 4G customers which grew by 4.7 million customers in the quarter.

Group Chief Executive, Vittorio Colao said:

“We have taken another step forward in the last three months, with the highlights being a strong performance in South Africa and improving trends in Germany and Italy. With 7 million new customers in the quarter, we have maintained our good commercial momentum in mobile and are beginning to accelerate in fixed, as we launch converged services in more markets. Customers are increasingly recognising the quality of our networks, leading to strong growth in data usage and benefiting from the significant investments in 4G and fibre that we have made over the last two years. We continue to face regulatory and competitive challenges in many markets, but we are confident that the business is well positioned for the growth opportunities ahead.”

Group total revenue hit £10.3 billion which was a 5.5% decline, due to a 0.2 percentage point negative impact from M&A, and a 7.9 percentage point negative impact from foreign exchange rate movements. The company said on an organic basis Group service revenue increased 1.4%.

Vodafone said the Groups outlook remains in line with management’s expectations with EBITDA expected to be in the range of £11.7 billion to £12.0 billion.