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* Q3 organic service revenue up 1.4 pct, in line withforecasts
* Highlights were Germany, Italy, low point was India (Adds comments by CEO, analyst)
By Paul Sandle
LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Mobile phone company Vodafone delivered its sixth consecutive quarter of underlyingrevenue growth on Thursday, as Germany and Italy led animprovement in Europe, its biggest regional business.
The world's second largest mobile operator met expectationswith a 1.4 percent rise in underlying revenue in its thirdquarter ended Dec. 31, saying it was helped by a more stablepricing environment and growing demand for data traffic.
Vodafone also said it was on track to deliver full-yearearnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation ofbetween 11.7 billion and 12 billion pounds, which compares witha reported EBITDA of 11.92 billion pounds last year and theaverage of analysts' forecasts of 11.6 billion pounds.
"Although in-line (with forecasts) at the headline level, wesee these (third-quarter) results as a positive givenimprovements in Germany and Italy and the likelihood that thepressures in India will pass," Citi analyst Simon Weeden said.
Under 'Project Spring', Vodafone has committed to spending19 billion pounds on building 4G high-speed networks in Europeand fast 3G networks in emerging markets, while also buying upfixed-line networks in markets where consumers are increasinglyopting for bundles of pay-TV and telecoms services.
The company said on Thursday it was still making "steadyprogress" towards returning to underlying revenue growth inEurope - the decline slowed to 0.6 percent in the last quarter,from 1 percent in the second quarter - but some analysts want aharder push into converged services.
Last year it was in talks with pay-TV cable group LibertyGlobal about a tie-up or exchange of assets that couldhave covered as many as seven European markets, but they failedto reach agreement on a deal.
On Tuesday Vodafone said talks had resumed, but this timewere limited to the idea of creating a joint venture in theNetherlands.
Chief Executive Vittorio Colao declined to say more onThursday, or if similar joint ventures made sense elsewhere.
"Every market is different," he said. "We are verypragmatic, we do whatever it takes to give better services andhave better returns."
In its emerging markets division, which contribute about athird of revenue, Vodafone said underlying revenue rose 6.5percent, thanks to strong performances in South Africa, Turkeyand Egypt.
"The market that slightly disappointed us this quarter isIndia, where we have slowed down," Colao said.
"There has been quite a bit of pressure on voice (and) therehas been quite some pressure on data, but we had a very goodquarter in terms of net additions," he said after reportingrevenue growth in India slowed to 2.3 percent in the thirdquarter from 5.6 percent in the second.
Meanwhile Vodafone said adverse moves in exchange rates inboth Europe and its emerging markets proved a headwind for thegroup's overall revenue performance, knocking reported revenuesdown by 7.9 percentage points in the last quarter.
Vodafone is due to switch to reporting in euros in its nextfinancial year, as more than half of all its revenue now comesfrom euro zone markets. (Editing by Kate Holton, Greg Mahlich)
