Houten, The Netherlands, 10 July 2015 - The number of mobile customers with virtual operators in the Netherlands increased by 0.6 percent over the six months to March 2015, to a total of 8.6 million.This is 41.8 percent of the total Dutch mobile market, according to Telecompaper's latest Dutch Mobile Virtual Operators Market report. Of the total, around 4.6 million were customers with operator-owned virtual (co-) brands, while the independent MVNOs counted 4.0 million SIMs, or 19.7 percent of the total Dutch mobile market, up slightly from 19.2 percent in Q3 2014.
Virtual operators also active in the fixed market, such as Ziggo Mobiel and Tele2, and in the ‘no-frills’, low-cost segment, such as Hollandsnieuwe, Simpel and Youfone, were the main ones growing in the period researched. The no-frills segment remains the largest in the Dutch VO market, accounting for slightly more than a third of customers, while the fixed segment has a 12 percent market share.
“It’s not surprising most growth is coming from the fixed and low-cost segments,” said Telecompaper analyst and co-author of the
report Alejandra van de Roer. “Dutch consumers are increasingly buying their communications in bundled packages, and many remain focused on costs due to the weak economic climate.”
While virtual operators slightly expanded their market share, more virtual players exited the market than entered it in the six months since Telecompaper’s last report on Dutch MVNOs. After counting three new brands and five exits in the period, the total number of active mobile virtual operators in the Netherlands fell to 65 at the end of March 2015. Notable exits included Vodafone’s second brand Blyk and T-Mobile’s partnership with MTV Mobile, while ISP Solcon was the latest fixed provider to enter the mobile market.
The VO market remains dominated by the same 10 brands, with no change in the rankings over the past six months. The KPN brands Hi and Telfort still lead the total VO market, although both are showing a gradual decline in customers. Lebara, Tele2 and Lycamobile remain the leaders of the independent MVNO brands. This situation will change in the next report, following Hi’s announced exit from the market and Tele2’s switch to MNO status instead of MVNO. Others announced exits since the end of March include UPC Mobile, Mobile care Safe SIM and Mobile Vikings.
Telecompaper expects more new entrants in the VO market, but also several exits, particularly amongst the independent MVNOs that 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,” said Van de Roer. “The intense competition in the telecom market and changing interests among consumers are also driving MVNOs to launch value-added and OTT services, in order to limit churn and boost revenues, as recently seen at Lebara.”
Much of the success of MVNOs depends on their wholesale agreement for network access. With Tele2 as the fourth mobile network operator, Telecompaper expects new opportunities to emerge for VOs. Tele2 is expected to actively seek wholesale customers on its network, as it works to raise capacity utilisation and recoup some of its network investment and operating costs. This may present a new chance for virtual players looking to gain access to 4G data services.