Houten, The Netherlands, 25 June 2015 - The mobile network operators in the Netherlands are losing market share to new providers, according to Telecompaper's latest 'Postpaid Mobile Insight' report covering Q1 2015. The combined share of the Vodafone, T-Mobile and KPN brands declined by 3 percentage points in the past year. Over the same period, Ziggo Mobile more than doubled its market share. The report also found consumers increasingly concerned about the cost of mobile services, with this named by more people as the most important factor in choosing a provider. At the same time, the price of the handset declined in importance.
The MNO brands - T-Mobile, Vodafone and KPN - are still losing market share to more price- competitive providers, such as Telfort, Tele2, Hollandsnieuwe and Ziggo. In Q1 2015, 41 percent of postpaid customers had a subscription with a ‘no-frills’ provider, up from 38 percent in the first quarter of 2014. The same trend was visible in the SIM-only segment (+2 percentage points), where premium providers have even less market share (41% versus 59% of the total postpaid market). Telfort remains the largest no-frills provider, although its market share has declined since the first quarter of 2014 by 3 percentage points. Ziggo Mobile more than doubled its market share in the past year, to 5 percent in Q1 2015.
The
research shows that the average age of the Dutch postpaid customer is 45. Hollandsnieuwe and Tele2 have the highest share of teenagers, with a fifth of their postpaid users under 20. Ziggo meanwhile has a larger share of 65-80 year olds, making the average age of its mobile customer base 51.
In general, the Dutch consumers appear more satisfied with their postpaid providers compared to previous surveys. However, the market’s NPS is still negative. The Net Promotor Score (NPS) has been gradually improving over the past year, from -10 to -1. This report also shows the pattern among SIM-only clients, where the NPS improved from -5 to -1 in 12 months.
The report also shows that more than four in ten Dutch postpaid customers (44%) choose their mobile provider based on the monthly costs/fee; this is especially important for customers of ‘no-frills’ providers. This argument for choosing a mobile provider became more important in the past year. In contrast, the purchase price of the handset became less important, down by four percentage points compared to a year ago. This may be due to more consumers buying their handsets separately from their service plan.
Note to editors
The
Postpaid Mobile Insight report Q1 2015 is based on the responses of over 50,000 participants in the Telecompaper Consumer Panel during the period April 2014 - March 2015. Results are CBS stratified for gender, age (12-80) and education. Every six months, we ask at least 10,000 consumers from our panel about their use of mobile telephony, broadband connections, fixed telephony, tablet and TV, including details on their current situation, purchasing habits, usage and churn. The price of the report is EUR 5,900.