LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - Britain's Vodafone saidits core earnings would fall in 2015 due to the investmentneeded in the business as it reported 2014 results in line withforecasts, helped by an improvement in underlying trading in thefourth quarter.
The world's second-largest mobile operator has reportedrecord falls in underlying revenue in the last 18 months, due tofierce competition in Europe, regulator-imposed price cuts andEuropean consumers reducing the number of calls they made duringthe recession.
It is now investing to improve network speed and coverageafter selling its U.S. arm in a $130 billion deal. It said itsorganic service revenue - stripping out items such as handsetsales, currency movements and acquisitions - was down 3.8percent in the three months to the end of March.
That was an improvement on the 4.8 percent drop recorded inthe third quarter and the 4.9 percent fall in the second.
Full-year revenue and core earnings were in line withforecasts.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Paul Sandle)