Vodafone speeds up cost-cutting plan despite sales boost

Vodafone unveiled annual operating profits of £11.8billion today but warned it did not expect to better the figure in the current financial year.

The mobile phone giant said the 16.7 per cent improvement in adjusted operating profits for the year to March 31 reflected 'robust' trading in Africa and India, offsetting a weaker performance in its more mature European markets.

The Newbury-based company said economic uncertainty and the threat of rising unemployment in Europe meant it expected operating profits for the 2009/10 year to be in the range of £11billion and £11.8billion.


Vodafone said: 'In Europe and central Europe, recent significant declines in GDP and continued competitive intensity will make operating conditions challenging in the 2010 financial year.'

Revenues in Europe increased by 13.6 per cent, but stripping out favourable exchange rates the figure was down by 2.1 per cent on a year earlier. This reflected deteriorating trends in Spain and Greece, while in the UK service revenues fell by 1.1 per cent due to increased competition and challenging economic conditions.

A 15.3 per cent fall in underlying earnings in the UK was distorted by a £30million VAT refund in the previous year, but the company noted that the cost of retaining customers had increased as a higher proportion of its customer base received upgrades following the expiration of 18-month contracts.

Vodafone said write-downs on the value of its businesses in Spain and Turkey - £3.4billion and £2.25billion respectively - meant bottom-line profits for the group fell 53.5 per cent to £4.19billion in the financial year.

It added that its drive to cut costs by £1billion by 2011 was ahead of plan, with 65 per cent of the programme now due to be achieved in this financial year.

Vodafone said the benefits of the project were also seen in the 2009 year, with operating expenses in Europe remaining 'broadly flat'.

Shares in the group opened 1 per cent higher today, helped by the company's decision to increase its dividend payment to shareholders by 3.5 per cent to 7.77p a share.

Scariest X-Ray Ever

An x-ray derived from a young Australian teenager who was hanging around a club when one of the people fighting chucks a metal chair into his head. The victim miraculously survived the randomed attack after a complex three hour operation. The images were taken at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. To find out more about the story check out Thought Mechanics.

Extraordinary satellite images show an ordinary day in Britain - as seen from space

This is Britain - but not as we know it. These extraordinary satellite images reveal what our nation looks like from the skies.

From flight paths and road networks to telephone exchanges across London, the stunning aerial shots paint a striking new perspective on the British Isles.

Everything from London taxi journeys to internet activity across the nation are replicated in the breathtaking images.

Using the latest satellite technology and innovations in aerial photography, the pictures will be shown for the first time on 'Britain from Above', a new BBC series that starts this Sunday.

Presenter Andrew Marr takes to the skies by plane, helicopter, microlight and even parachute to give viewers a bird's eye view of landmarks across the UK.

The programme uses satellite data and the latest computer generated imagery to demonstrate how Britain keeps moving - tracking the planes that enter our airspace, the ships that cross the English Channel and the cars that travel our streets, all in the space of a single day.

Series director Cassian Harrison, said: 'It has been amazing to work with cameras mounted on so many helicopters and planes.

'The one disadvantage is that when we film we're contending so much with the weather.

'It has been a battle with the elements, but a brilliant one, working out how many different ways it is possible to get up in the sky and look down at the nation.

'In a way, though, the biggest privilege is being able to look down on the world you know.

'It's like Google Earth, but for real.'

'Britain From Above' begins on BBC1 on Sunday at 9pm.

NASA Scientist: Reports of Mars Life Finding Are 'Bogus'

Rumblings in the media suggest some intriguing findings from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission that relate to the question of life, specifically whether it could have survived on Mars in the past.

The issue bubbled up when it was reported Friday that some interesting results from Phoenix's wet chemistry laboratory, part of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) suite of instruments, were mentioned in a White House briefing.

Not so, says Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith, of the University of Arizona, who denied that any details of the MECA findings had been shared and called the reports "bogus and damaging information."

The Aviation Week & Space Technology report came on the heels of the Thursday NASA announcement that Phoenix had confirmed the presence of water ice at its landing site in Mars' arctic regions, first detected in 2002 by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. MECA team members were not present at the press briefing at which the water-ice announcement was made.

"The goal [of having no MECA team members present] was to prevent them from being asked any questions that could reveal information before NASA is ready to make an announcement, sources say," the Aviation Week article said, adding that, "The Bush Administration's Presidential Science Advisor's office, however, has been briefed on the new information that NASA hopes to release as early as mid August."

But Smith told SPACE.com that this was "not true, MECA results have not been discussed at the White House."

"There is no one who knows either on the [Phoenix] project in Tucson or at [NASA] HQ who knows where this information came from," Smith said in a subsequent email.

Smith also said that the MECA team was not present at the Thursday briefing because "they had nothing new to report, the story was about water ice."

When the writer of the Aviation Week story, Craig Covault, was contacted by SPACE.com, he attributed much of the confusion and media hubbub to other news outlets picking up his story and mistakenly reporting that his article said that NASA had discovered life on Mars.

"Note the [Aviation Week] story said very, very clearly three times or so, NO life on Mars detected and Phoenix can NOT [detect life] in the first place," Covault wrote in an email.

Smith added that the results from the analysis of the second soil sample in MECA's wet chemistry lab didn't have any bearing on the question of Mars' past habitability "in any direct way."

"We are attempting to assess the chemicals and minerals that make up the soil composition," he explained. "We are now about half way through the process and there are several conflicting points of view. This is not a good time to go public with half the story."

Covault said that he stands by his story and noted that his piece mentioned the ongoing review of MECA data.

The wet chemistry laboratory has four teacup-sized beakers, each used only once. Samples of the Martian dirt are place in a beaker and mixed with water brought from Earth.

Sensors on the inner surface of the beakers act like electronic tongues and "taste" the dirt to detect salts that can dissolve in water. The sensors can also detect the pH of the surface.

All of this information gives scientists a picture of what the surface layer of dirt looks like now and whether or not it might have been a habitable area at some point in the planet's past.

MECA's first analysis showed that the Martian regolith contained several soluble minerals necessary for life, including potassium, magnesium and chloride. The surface also had an alkaline pH, which on Earth is suitable for growing some plants, such as asparagus. The second sample, currently being analyzed, was delivered to the instrument on July 7.