T-Mobile Moves Up To Number 2 In Dutch Mobile Market, Number 1 In Postpaid

Only nine months after its takeover of Tele2, T-Mobile has grown to become the second-largest mobile operator in terms of service revenues in the Netherlands, overtaking Vodafone, research by Telecompaper shows. T-Mobile already passed Vodafone in subscribers after the Tele2 acquisition, and in Q3 2019, the T-Mobile group also overtook market leader KPN (group) in postpaid subscribers.

While all three mobile operator groups posted lower revenue on an annual basis in Q3 2019, T-Mobile’s decline was the smallest, pro forma for the Tele2 takeover, according to Telecompaper’s Dutch Mobile Operators Q3 2019 report. The operator’s service revenue market share rose to 30.9 percent, while Vodafone, which had the biggest fall in revenue in Q3, dropped to a share of 29.6 percent. KPN remains market leader, with its revenue share little changed in the past year at 39.5 percent, despite a drop in subscriber numbers.

Biggest postpaid operator

T-Mobile group also achieved the milestone of becoming the provider with the most postpaid subscribers in the Netherlands in Q3 2019, overtaking KPN. This is due to steady customer growth at T-Mobile each quarter and little to no growth at KPN group. T-Mobile, including Tele2 and MVNOs such as Simpel, had 6.108 million postpaid customers at the end of September, compared to 6.057 million for the KPN group.

The above figures are based on groups, including the operators’ second brands and wholesale customers. Looking at the individual retail brands, T-Mobile is still in third place in terms of subscribers, but has added 1.3 percent points of market share in the past year. The KPN premium brand recovered some of the market share lost in the past year in Q3, leading the market with 264,000 subscribers added in the three months, after it took over prepaid customers from its discontinued Telfort brand.

“T-Mobile’s growth is contributing to KPN losing customers and Vodafone losing revenues,” said Alejandra van de Roer, Telecompaper’s analyst for the Dutch mobile market and author of the Dutch Mobile operators quarterly report. “KPN is trying to change the pattern with its new Hussel multi-play and unlimited mobile pricing launched in October, and Vodafone may also need to rethink its FMC discounts and mobile pricing in order to restore revenue growth.”

Total revenues down 5.7%

Total mobile service revenues on the Dutch market fell by 5.7 percent year-on-year in Q3 2019 to EUR 932 million. Telecompaper forecasts the market will contract by around 4 percent over the full year 2019, to EUR 3.7 billion in service revenue.―Telecompaper