UK mobile operators suffer a loss of 119k subscribers in Q1 08 (UK)UK mobile customer base saw its first quaterly decline for two years in Q1 08, losing on 119k subscribers to finish the quarter on 70.67million. The net declines was seen with O2, T-Mobile, Virgin and Tesco suffering widespread losses. Tesco lost a maximum of 100k, Virgin lost 68k, T-Mobile 71k and O2 79k. The highest figures for net additions of 114k were achieved by Orange, Hutchison came next with 75k and Vodafone gained 41k. Similar subscriber loss was seen in the Q1 07, but Vodafone’s strong performance, 723k net additons, ensured a growth in the total customer base.
On an annual basis, the Q1 08 loss was counterbalanced by a potent net additions of 1.89 million in the Q4 07, leaving the annual growth at 5.0%, almost exactly the same rate as the preceding 12 months (4.9%). However, no consistency could be seen on the operator level, Virgin, after seeing a growth of 3.2% in the previous year, it was down by 0.9% to 4.42million. O2 recorded a gain in the subscribers on year-on-year basis, but it’s growth rate of 4.7% was less than half the last year’s figure of 10.2%. Tesco’s growth rate halved from 35.9% to 17.9%, taking quater-end customer base to 1.65million.
T-Mobile and Orange, on the other hand, improved strikingly on the 0.9% annual growth in the Q1 07 by both of them. T-Mobile grew to 10.24million, a growth of 4.2%, while Orange grew at 4.4% to 15.76million, but did not advance Vodafone’s lead gained in the Q1 07.
Vodafone, the most consistent performer in the market, edged it’s 6.9% growth rate up to 7.7%, finishing the quater 0.85 million ahead of Orange on 16.6million. O2 scored a 20.05 million subscribers to become the market leader with quater-end.
