Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) is upbeat that its stellar performance since the company's formation in June 2009 will be sustained down the line in 2010, as the country's third largest telco announced on Tuesday that it has started working on long-term branding and network strategies.

Formed from the merger of Vodafone Australia and Hutchison Telecommunication (Australia) Ltd (HTA), the relatively new company is doing very well, according to VHA chief executive Nigel Dews.

Speaking before the company's annual general meeting, Mr Dews told shareholders that as VHA wraps up its first 12 months, "we expect our strengthened performance to continue, with growth coming through both an increasing customer base and growing take-up in 3G services."

HTA has reported that by end of December 2009, it has realised a net profit of $467.7 million which largely brought about by the $587.3 million it earned from the Vodafone merger, as against a net loss of $119.6 million, which is an improvement from a loss of $163.1 million in the same period on 2008.

The company noted that the figures explicitly excluded 50 percent sales from its 3 other businesses, as Mr Dews is projecting that they will be saving about $2 billion from direct result of synergies in the merger and effective cost-cutting measures in the company's budget.

He said that the company is set to unravel its long-term branding strategy that will make Vodafone as the dominant banner in all VHA operations, stressing that this year will witness major breakthroughs for the telco "as we will be taking some steps towards this goal, including selling both brands in many of our exclusive distribution channels and beginning to reposition the Vodafone brand."

Mr Dews told AAP that major decisions are underway for VHA's network strategy within the next few months as the company embarks on its campaign to increase coverage and address subscribers' growing demand for data access.