The Dutch mobile communication services market was worth EUR 1.52 billion in revenues in the second quarter of 2006, according to research report "Dutch Mobile Operators 2006 - second quarter" from Telecompaper. The market grew 5.2 percent compared to the first quarter of 2006 when the market generated EUR 1.44 billion in revenues. The market was up just 0.9% compared to the same period last year, when revenue totaled EUR 1.50 billion.
These quarterly growth rates are relatively weak and suggest that revenue growth in the Dutch mobile services market remains under pressure. Despite the market bouncing back from a seasonally weak first quarter, the recovery is not as strong as the quarterly growth rates recorded in the second quarters of 2005 (7.5%) and 2004 (5.5%). Year-on-year growth is also weak compared to previous years: in 2005 and 2004 annual growth in the second quarter was 6.9% and 5.2% respectively, compared to 0.9% this year.
Given the relatively weak recovery of this second quarterly growth rate and a flattening of the annual growth rate, we have cut our forecast for revenue growth in 2006 again, after already lowering the outlook in the first quarter. We now expect revenue growth over the full year of 1.5 to 2.5 precent, down from the previous estimate of 3 to 4 percent.
This latest report from Telecompaper's continued research into developments on the communication services market looks at the leading Dutch mobile network operators KPN (including Telfort), Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange.
KPN continued to lead the market in the second quarter, helped by its acquisition of Telfort last year. The operator's market share rose to 46.8 percent of revenues, from 46.5 percent in the first quarter of 2006. T-Mobile's share of revenues fell, to 17.5 percent (EUR 266 million) from 17.7 percent, while Vodafone was stable at a share of 27.5 percent (EUR 417 million). Orange dropped further, to 8.1 percent (EUR 123 million) from 8.3 percent in the first quarter of 2006.
The total mobile customer base in the Netherlands, including customers of Tele2 Mobiel, UPC Mobiel and Scarlet, grew to 17.2 million at the end of June 2006, from 16.9 million at the end of March 2006 and 16.70 million at the end of June 2005. Mobile penetration reached a record high of 105 percent of the population.
