Houten, The Netherlands, 30 June 2014 - The number of virtual-enabled customers increased by 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2014, to a total of 8.4 million. This is 41.6 percent of the total Dutch mobile market, according to Telecompaper's Dutch Mobile Virtual Operators Market report. Of the total number of virtual customers, 56.4 percent or just below 4.8 million are operator-owned virtual (co-)brands. The independent MVNO market 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, with seven new entrants, three exits -with one still servicing existing customers- and the addition of one missing brand. 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 who stopped marketing and selling its service to new customers but allowed existing customers to finish their credit until end of June 2014. Two of the new players were each set up as a second brand by business players Dekatel and Mobile Service, targeting the no-frills market within the business segment. Besides new entrants and exits, two existing MVNOs were re-branded, Scarlet is now Stipte and Euphony will be renamed Mobicross.
The only segments showing growth include the fixed players (mainly due to growth at Tele2 and Ziggo Mobiel) and the no-frills segment (mainly due to growth at 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 is about 10% of the total market.
The market is dominated by eleven virtual brands which remain almost unchanged, compared to six months ago. The main change is Tele2 moving up to fourth place, with regards to the 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.
The report
“Dutch Mobile Virtual Operators Market - Market overview first quarter 2014” provides a detailed analysis of all the virtual (co) brands in the Dutch market, including operator-owned, independent MVNOs but also MVNE players. The report also contains a section discussing the market by segment, analysing exposure in the media and forecast expectations. The report is published twice a year and single-user price for the report is EUR 1,900. Together with this research document there are also company profiles of most of the VO market players, consisting of more than 60 companies.