The decline in mobile service revenues on the Dutch market accelerated in the second quarter to a 4.5 percent year-on-year fall to EUR 886 million, according to the latest research by Telecompaper. Less travel and more working at home due to the coronavirus meant lower roaming and out-of-bundle revenues and also slower customer growth. The continued pressure on especially the business market due to the pandemic effects has led Telecompaper to downgrade its forecast for full-year revenues in the latest edition of the Dutch Mobile Operators quarterly report.
In the same period of 2019, the Dutch market contracted only 3.0 percent on an annual basis, while mobile service revenues were down just 1.4 percent year-on-year in Q1 2020. The bigger fall in Q2 means Telecompaper now forecasts an around 4.3 percent drop in mobile service revenues over the full year 2020, to EUR 3.6 billion."The situation in the B2B market is likely to remain difficult in the months ahead due to the economic recession and more businesses re-evaluating their ICT needs," said Alejandra van de Roer, Telecompaper mobile market analyst and author of the Dutch Mobile Operators report. "Overall operators are expected to remain focused on FMC packages to help limit customer churn, while promoting higher-end plans more in an attempt to boost revenues."
FMC take-up grows to 43% of consumer postpaid
The coronavirus crisis had an impact especially on the B2B revenues in the second quarter, mainly due to lower outbound and visitor roaming. In addition the mobile operators face the longer-term trend of increased take-up of fixed-mobile converged (FMC) packages. These often come with discounts on the mobile plan, putting pressure on revenues.
At the end of June, 43 percent of Dutch consumer postpaid mobile contracts were linked to fixed services from the same operator, up 4 percent points in the past year. In total, nearly 4.6 million consumer postpaid Sims were part of FMC packages in Q2. KPN, which was the first on the market to introduce FMC offers, accounts for just under half the Sims, while VodafoneZiggo took 43.5 percent of the FMC Sims in Q2. VodafoneZiggo led the market growth in the past year, with nearly 7 in 10 of its postpaid consumer customers now on a fixed-mobile package.
The discounts offered on such packages, along with the pressure in the B2B market contributed to both operators underperforming the mobile market in Q2. They reported annual declines of 8.3 percent at KPN and 7.1 percent at Vodafone in quarterly mobile service revenues. In contrast, T-Mobile increased service revenues 3.4 percent, driven by steady customer growth at the operator.
The above figures are based on Telecompaper’s Dutch Mobile Operators Q2 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.
