Mobile service revenues totaled EUR 903 million in the first quarter, according to the Telecompaper quarterly Dutch Mobile Operators report. Vodafone showed the biggest decline, down 5.1 percent, and KPN’s service revenues fell 4.4 percent year-on-year. T-Mobile outperformed and grew 6.9 percent, thanks to a strong increase in customer numbers in both the consumer and business segments.
While KPN remains market leader with nearly 39 percent of revenues, its market share is down over 1 percent point from a year ago. T-Mobile has gained over 2 percent points in the same period, strengthening its position as the second-largest operator with 31.2 percent of revenues in Q1 2020. Vodafone was down slightly to 30 percent in Q1.
"T-Mobile continues to dominate customer growth, taking over 40 percent of postpaid net additions in Q1," said Alejandra van de Roer, Telecompaper research analyst and author of the DMO report. "This comes at a cost though, as its postpaid ARPU is still the lowest in the market and continues to fall each quarter."
While the coronavirus outbreak had only a small impact on the mobile market in Q1, Telecompaper expects a more pronounced effect in the rest of year, as especially the business segment suffers from the economic slowdown. Lower roaming and out-of-bundle revenues, an increase in bad debtors and bankruptcies and increased adoption of OTT services and ‘democratisation’ in the enterprise market will all put pressure on sales. Over the full year, the Dutch market is expected to contact by around 4 percent to EUR 3.55 billion in service revenues.
The above figures are based on Telecompaper’s Dutch Mobile Operators Q1 2020 report, which is now available for purchase. The quarterly report provides a full analysis of all the KPIs and trends on the mobile market, including a five-year revenue and Sims forecast. To order a copy of the latest edition of the report or receive a customised market analysis, please contact research@telecompaper.com.
