Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) , the world’s largest mobile-phone company, reported a smaller-than-estimated decline in full-year profit as the company sold mobile data services at a faster pace than some European rivals.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 0.4 percent to 14.7 billion pounds ($23.8 billion) in the 12 months through March, compared with analysts’ estimates for 14.6 billion pounds. Mobile data sales surged 26 percent to 5.12 billion pounds.

“Vodafone is more aggressive in its bundling of data and its tiering of tariffs,” said Morten Singleton, an analyst at Investec Securities in London. The company “looks better positioned” than others to benefit from the changing behavior of consumers.

Vodafone, based in Newbury, England , is banking on the popularity of smartphones that can surf the Web and download music and games to bolster data sales and make up for sluggish voice call revenue. Chief Executive Officer Vittorio Colao plans to increase the percentage of sales from smartphones in Europe to about 70 percent in the fiscal year ending March 2013 from 30 percent last year.

Source: Bloomberg