The number of Dutch mobile customers using a virtual operator rose 4.4 percent over the six months to the end of September 2012 to a total 7.9 million, good for 37.3 percent of the Dutch mobile market. Of the total, 58.0 percent or 4.6 million customers used virtual brands (co-)owned by the mobile network operators. Independent MVNOs counted 3.3 million customers or 15.7 percent of the total Dutch mobile market, up from 15.2 percent in Q1 2012, according to latest report from Telecompaper on the Dutch virtual operator market.
The number of active mobile virtual operators in the Netherlands, including operator (co-)owned virtual brands, was stable over the past six months, at 67 at the end of Q3 2012. Of the total, 52 were independent MVNO brands.
Compared to Q1 2012, this includes six new entrants and six operators exiting the market. The market remains quite crowded; nevertheless several companies continue to launch initiatives, either as a standalone mobile-only solution or as an add-on to their existing services. More and more independent MVNOs are also offering white-label services to other MVNOs, such as new entrant Voiceworks, the report found.
New developments in the six months covered by the report included the launch of Bliep, offering affordable prepaid services with unlimited SMS, internet use and on-net calls aimed at the youth market; Delta Mobiel, a MVNO by utilities company Delta targeting its local market and customers in Zeeland; and two new business-oriented brands offering FMC services, FirmTel and Voiceworks. Exits included Yiggers, Mobilezed06, Norea Mobile and Stunt Mobiel, the disappearance of the TeleSpectrum brand due to its acquisition by Vodafone and Altantic Telecom rebranded to Telfort Zakelijk.
From October 2012, two more brands left the market, Hyves Mobile and Ay Yildiz, and five new MVNO brands launched: Yellow Mobile, DobryTel, Mobile Care Safe-sim, Valkmobile and Mobile Vikings. In addition, MVNE Teleena created together with five other companies the European Association of Full MVNOs (EAFM) to represent the interests of full MVNOs.
The total virtual operator market is dominated by 11 virtual brands, unchanged from six months ago. KPN brands Hi and Telfort, with their large customer bases, remain the leaders of the operator-owned brands and total VO market. Lebara and Lycamobile remain the leaders of the independent MVNO brands.In terms of network operator usage, KPN continues to lead, although it has lost some share. Both Vodafone and T-Mobile continue to increase market share, with T-Mobile adding the most due to growth at Tele2, Simpel and Ben.
While MVNEs share benefits of scale, enabling more VOs to enter the market, the majority of VOs are run directly with/by the MNOs. However, new VOs mostly use MVNEs to enter the market.
