While seasonally the second quarter is stronger than the first quarter, this year growth was almost half last year’s rate, with revenues up only EUR 29 million. Non-voice services (data and SMS) contributed 40 percent of total mobile service revenue in the period.
Telecompaper updated its outlook for the Dutch mobile industry and now expects a 3-4 percent decline in services revenue over the full year 2012, to EUR 5.8-5.9 billion. Over the period 2011-2016, the Dutch market is expected to show a CAGR of 0.1 percent, with service revenue little changed compared to 2011 at around EUR 6.1 billion in 2016. Regulation and the weak economic climate are expected to continue to weigh on operator revenues, while the growing shift to data-centric services will also require changes in pricing, the market researcher expects.
In Q2, KPN showed the biggest annual decline (-5%) in total service revenues in the second quarter, while T-Mobile and Vodafone showed relatively smaller drops and as such increased their market shares. KPN saw its market share decrease by 1.0 percent annually, while T-Mobile Netherlands increased by 0.6 percent and Vodafone Netherlands added 0.4 percent.
The mobile Sim base (including MVNOs) increased by 1.5 percent annually to 20.9 million at the end of June 2012. As a consequence mobile market penetration rose from 123.6 percent in Q2 2011 to 125.0 percent in Q2 2012. KPN’s market leader position eroded slightly to below 47 percent of all subscribers, while Vodafone saw its market share increase to almost 29 percent. T-Mobile declined slightly to around 24 percent.
