MVNOs and virtual brands (co-)owned by operators accounted for 41.6 percent of mobile customers on the Dutch market at the end of Q1, according to Telecompaper’s Dutch Mobile Virtual Operators Market report. The number of virtual-enabled customers increased by 2.5 percent over the previous six months to a total 8.4 million. Of the total, 56.4 percent or just under 4.8 million were operator-owned virtual (co-)brands. The independent MVNOs counted nearly 3.7 million SIMs, or 18.1 percent of the total Dutch mobile market, versus 17.3 percent in Q3 2013.
The number of active mobile virtual operators in the Netherlands increased from 64 to 70 during the first quarter. There were seven new entrants, three players exited the market (with one still servicing existing customers), and one additional brand was added to the report. The market remains quite crowded, but several companies still continue to launch initiatives, either as a standalone mobile-only solution or as an add-on to their existing services.
Exits included ACN Mobiel, a second brand of Lycamobile named GT Mobile and PostNL Mobiel, which stopped marketing ts service to new customers but allowed existing customers to finish their credit by the end of June. Two of the new players were second brands set up by business players Dekatel and Mobile Service, targeting the no-frills market. In addition, two existing MVNOs were re-branded, Scarlet as Stipte and Euphony as Mobicross.
The only segments of the VO market showing customer growth were the fixed players (mainly due to growth at Tele2 and Ziggo Mobiel) and the no-frills segment (mainly due to growth at Vodafone's hollandsnieuwe). The no-frills segment continues to be the largest segment in the Dutch VO market, accounting for about a third of the total market, while the fixed segment has about 10 percent of customers.
The market is dominated by eleven virtual brands, which remain almost unchanged compared to six months ago. The main change was Tele2 moved up to fourth place in terms of number of customers. The KPN brands Telfort and Hi still lead the total VO market, although Hi continued to show a decline in customers. Lebara, Lycamobile and Tele2 remain the leaders of the independent MVNO brands, although Tele2 switched to second place here.
Telecompaper expects that the difficult economic climate and regulatory environment will continue to have a negative impact on many of the virtual operators, and particularly the independent MVNOs, which only offer basic mobile services and depend on mobile as their main source of income. "They will need to distinguish themselves, as offering just a ‘me-too’ service is not a suitable strategy in the current climate," said Alejandra van de Roer, senior analyst at Telecompaper and co-author of the report.
