Belgian mobile operators Orange and Telenet reported a slowdown in customer growth in the first quarter, as shops closure affected sales, while market leader Proximus did better, helped by new tariff plans introduced at the start of the year. In total, Belgian mobile service revenues fell by 1.2 percent year-on-year, the latest research from Telecompaper shows.
Orange continued to add the most mobile customers, but its postpaid growth was half that of the fourth quarter and also less than in Q1 2019. The company said it felt the impact of the forced shop closures from mid-March due to coroanvirus restrictions, which led to fewer new mobile and convergent subscribers. At the same time, churn among existing customers was lower, Orange noted.
Telenet showed a similar picture, with postpaid customer growth lower on both a quarterly and annual basis in Q1. Nevertheless, customer growth in the past year was enough to return the company to annual growth in postpaid revenues of 1.2 percent in Q1.Proximus was the only operator with lower postpaid service revenue year-on-year in Q1, and its customer growth has lagged the two rivals in the postpaid segment in the past year. However, Proximus said its new tariff plans introduced at the start of the year had a positive impact on customer numbers in Q1, and it added more postpaid subscribers in the period than in Q4 or Q1 2019.
"Customer growth is likely to slow further in Q2, with shops reopening only in mid-May and lower foot traffic," said Marion ter Welle, Telecompaper research analyst for the Belgian market. "Revenues will be hurt as well by lower usage, including reduced roaming, out-of-bundle traffic and prepaid top-ups. Operators will likely try to offset this with their annual price increases."
The figures come from Telecompaper's quarterly data sheet on the Belgian mobile market, which covers all the KPIs for the industry. The latest edition shows that mobile service revenues in Belgium, including both the prepaid and postpaid segments, fell by 1.2 percent year-on-year to EUR 679 million in Q1. Revenues were hurt by discounts on fixed-mobile bundles, the continued decline in the prepaid market, and free services offered during the coronavirus lockdown.
