Houten, The Netherlands, 01 December 2011 - In Q3 2011 the number of virtually enabled customers stood at 1.97 million in Belgium, or 15 percent of the total Belgian mobile market. The market is dominated by co-marketing partnerships. The top ten virtual operators account for 94 percent of the market, leaving 33 companies vying for the remaining 6 percent of customers. These are some of the main findings of the first research conducted by Telecompaper on the Belgian mobile virtual operators market and available in the new report 'Belgian Mobile Virtual Operators – market overview third quarter 2011'.
The number of active mobile virtual operators in Belgium stood at 42 at the end of September 2011. The market saw some exits and some more entries during 2011, but overall remained quite stable. The market is characterised by a large number of co-marketing partnerships, which account for 30 percent of providers and 45 percent of customer market share, as well as by many small players and little MVNE activity. New launches in 2011 included Academic Mobile, Contact Mobile, Red Bull Mobile and VT4 Mobile.
The largest three players are Jim Mobile, Lycamobile and Generation MTV. In terms of segmentation, the Media segment takes 41 percent of the market, followed by the Ethnic segment with 25 percent. The majority of virtual players operate on the Base network.
The Belgian mobile virtual market is expected to see some more entries and exits in the near future. The national and EU regulations will have a negative effect on some VOs, although it may actually help other VOs. New VOs will need to focus on innovative services as the mobile market is a crowded one. The recent spectrum auction has led to one new player in the market and the expected introduction of a new law limiting the maximum length of a mobile contract to six months may create higher churn rates at all mobile operators but it may also lead to more subsidisation of handsets as operators try to find new ways to tie in customers. Despite the new contract between MVNE Elephant Talk and Base, we do not anticipate much more MVNE activity than the current low level, said Marion ter Welle, senior researcher at Telecompaper and co-author of the report.
The report “Belgian Mobile Virtual Operators Market - Market overview third quarter 2011” provides a detailed analysis of all the virtual (co) brands in the Belgian market, including operator-owned, co-marketing partnerships and independent MVNOs. It looks at the target markets, propositions and performance of the active players in this market segment. The report focuses on the mobile VOs with activities in the Belgian market and outlines the most important business issues and strengths and weaknesses per virtual operator. The report also contains a section discussing the market by segment, analyzing exposure in the media and forecast expectations. The report is published once a year and a copy for 1-2 readers (within one organisation) costs EUR 2,950. A business licence (up to 10 users) costs EUR 5,600, and a company-wide licence costs EUR 10,325.
Marion ter Welle - Senior Research Analyst Phone: +31 30 6349600 E-mail: marion@telecompaper.com