The Dutch mobile industry revenues fell 2.2 percent in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter, and 1.1 percent from the year before, the first annual decline since the second quarter of 2006, Telecompaper’s quarterly mobile market monitor revealed. Growth in non-voice revenue also slowed in the third quarter and was unable to compensate for the drop in voice revenues across both periods. Dutch market research firm Telecompaper updated its five-year outlook for the industry, saying it continues to expect stable to around 1 percent higher services revenues on the Dutch mobile market, reaching around EUR 6.5 billion for the full year. For the period 2008-2013, the Dutch market is expected to show a CAGR of 1.6 percent, reaching around EUR 7.0 billion in service revenues in 2013.

Vodafone was the only operator to show revenue growth on both a year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter basis. The operator increased its market share by 1.0 percent, while T-Mobile and KPN lost 0.6 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.

The number of mobile subscribers decreased by 88,000, due to losses at MVNOs, mostly Lycamobile and Tele2. The total subscriber base was up by 0.7 million over the last 12 months to around 21.3 million at the end of September. Market penetration increased to 128.6 percent at the end of the third quarter, from 124.9 percent the year before. KPN’s market leader position fell slightly to below 49 percent of all subscribers, while Vodafone saw its market share increase to more than 23 percent and T-Mobile dropped to around 28 percent.