Dutch mobile market grows 5.8%

In the first three quarters of 2005, the Dutch mobile communication services market grew 5.8 percent and generates EUR 4.44 billion in services revenue, up from EUR 4.20 billion in the same period last year, according to research from Telecompaper. Based on a strong performance for the second quarter, in combination with a reasonably good third quarter mobile services revenue will grow 6 percent this year, and increase to EUR 5.96 billion for the entire year 2005. KPN is the largest mobile operator with EUR 1,678 million and takes 37.8 percent of mobile services revenue of the first nine months. Vodafone follows with 28.1 percent with revenue of EUR 1,247 million. T-Mobile has revenue of EUR 735 million for a market share of 16.6%, whilst Orange and Telfort have revenue shares of 9.0 percent and 8.6 percent respectively.

Market shares of the Dutch mobile companies

The mobile customer base shrinks 1.0 percent to 16.55 million in the quarter, down from 16.70 million in June 2005. It is the market's first decline since the quarter ending June 2003. Despite price pressures on mobile voice services, revenue still grows in the third quarter to EUR 1.31 billion in the third quarter of 2005, up from EUR 1.30 billion in the second quarter of 2005. Mobile none-voice service revenue growth picked up considerably in the third quarter: on a q-by-q basis, and grows 13.1 percent to EUR 226 million, up from EUR 199 million in the second quarter. Postpay takes over from prepay as driver for customer growth, and quality of customer base approaches all time high. Vodafone turns in excellent quarter when it comes to net connections during the quarter, and both T-Mobile and Telfort advance market share in postpay market. Prepay market shrinks by 500,000 net connections, as KPN cleans up its customer database leading to a significant decline in their prepay customer base.

Source: Telecompaper