The Reuters story cites Vodafone Chief Executive Chris Gent interview with Germany's Focus magazine. He said Europe's largest mobile phone group was still working on resolving key technical glitches ahead of the commercial launch of 3G telephony.

"We are testing the handover and we will need another three months, some would say six months," said Gent, who is due to step down from the helm of the telecoms giant in July.

"Therefore we are looking at an autumn start in eight European countries."