Vodafone recommended an interim dividend of 3.68 pence per share.

Vodafone (LON:VOD) announced on Tuesday that it had reached “an important turning point” as it saw better-than-expected revenue growth in the second quarter, returning it to earnings growth for the first half of the year and improving its annual expectations towards the top end of its guidance.

The company posted second quarter organic service revenue growth of 1.2 percent, an improvement of 0.4 percent on the 0.8 percent it achieved in the first quarter and ahead of the 0.9 percent analysts were anticipating. Vodafone also announced an increase to their dividend by 2.2% to 3.68p,

Ebitda increased 1.9 percent in H1 to £5.78 billion, compared with a decline of 10 percent in the same period in 2014. Vodafone said the advance was based on profit margin increases generated through tight cost control.

Chief Executive, Vittorio Colao said on Tuesday, “we have reached an important turning point for the group with a return to organic growth in service revenue and EBITDA (core earnings) in the first half of the financial year.”

He said Europe was stabilizing after the company saw a 1 percent decline in Europe whilst seeing 6.7 percent growth in the AMAP region (Africa, Middle East, Asia Pacific) all at constant currency rates.

Data traffic usage grew by 75 percent as the average European customer increased their usage by 39% in the latest quarter. Vodafone now has 12.5m broadband customers and is marketing high speed broadband to 66 million European homes.

The company noted that a steady improvement in the economic climate in Europe has created an environment which has allowed Vodafone to offer 4G services to 80 percent of its customers after a significant amount of investment in its networks over the last two years.

Vodafone’s results on a reported level saw growth reduced by currency headwinds, and it stated that it would switch from reporting in sterling to euros for the 2017 financial year.

Vodafone shares rose by 4% in the first hour of trading following the release of the results.