The latest report from Telecompaper’s continued research into developments on the Dutch communication services market looks at the leading Dutch mobile network operators KPN (including Telfort), Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange. Telecompaper's estimates suggest a good first quarter for the mobile service revenues, with an increase of 0.6% to EUR 1.542 billion, whereas the first quarter normally shows a drop in revenue compared to the previous quarter. Year-on-year, revenues went up by 7.5%. The growth in revenues was driven by the postpay and non-voice segments.
All operators increased their service revenues year-on-year, but KPN was the only operator to increase market share, thus outperforming the market. KPN’s share of mobile service revenues during the first quarter 2007 was 47.7%. Vodafone was second with a market share of 26.7%, followed by T-Mobile with a market share of 17.5% and Orange, which had the lowest market share at 8.1%.
T-Mobile and KPN lost market share in postpay revenues in Q1 2007, while KPN was the only operator that added market share year- on-year. Prepay revenues fell 2.5% in the first quarter, but was marginally higher year-on-year. Vodafone and Orange grew their voice revenues in Q1 2007, but KPN outperformed market, taking 88% of the total voice revenue increase year-on-year. Non-voice service revenues hit an all time high with a year-on-year increase of EUR 59.3 million or 25.9%. All operators grew non-voice revenues both sequentially and year-on-year.
All network operators increased their customer bases in the first quarter with the total number of mobile customers reaching 18.189 million. The mobile penetration rate exceeded 111 percent during the quarter. The postpay market was responsible for the increase in subscribers, gaining almost 10 times as many customers as the prepay segment. The postpay market share increased to 45.8%, up from 45.2% last quarter.
Vodafone and Orange won market share in postpay market during last quarter. However, KPN was the only operator that won market share year-on-year. In the prepay segment, T-Mobile was the big winner, adding far more prepay customers than the competition, both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.
Despite a good first quarter and strong increase on non-voice revenues, Telecompaper estimates that mobile service revenue growth in this year will be limited, or even flat, due to the impact of lower revenues because of the drop in MTA in H2 2007.
