www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone has emerged more powerful and stronger under the leadership of Vittorio Colao, the chief executive of the company. He announced that the UK mobile phone group will increase its dividend by at least 7 per cent during each of the coming three years. Colao took over the charge of Vodafone in 2008 with an aim to extract better performances from the group's existing businesses and his commitment has been recognized by some of the investors. Vodafone's fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2009-10 came as signal that Colao’s efforts to improve the group's businesses are at best a work in progress and it also matched analysts’ predictions. 2.6 per cent fall in the revenue paid by Vodafone's UK customers has been recorded in the three months to March 31 compared with the same period last year, a remarkable improvement as compared to the previous three quarters. Vodafone starting to sell Apple's popular iPhone in the UK in January was also partially responsible for operator’s better performance. However, the company still lags behind its competitors wherein O2, the second-largest operator, recorded revenue growth of 3.1 per cent in the three months to March 31. There is also uncertainty about the economic recovery means that it is not relying on its European businesses to fuel rising group sales but looking towards the emerging markets. Search for growth in the emerging market began way back when Vodafone purchased Turkish business in 2005 for $4.6bn and the initiative was taken by the then CEO of the company, Arun Sarin. Vodafone's purchase of a controlling stake in India's fourth-largest mobile operator in 2007 for $10.9bn was also the product of Sarin’s mind and now under Colao's leadership, Vodafone's Indian business has become the country's second-largest mobile operator by revenue. Colao also highlighted that if dividend payments resume at Verizon Wireless, there are prospects of higher remuneration for shareholders in the future but the company has not received a Verizon Wireless dividend since 2005 because payments were blocked by Verizon Communications.