One2One, Vodafone and BT Cellnet have released their Q1 subscriber figures.
It feels like everyone has a mobile phone these days and Wednesday’s subscriber figures from One2One suggest that it’s not far from the truth. However, as the proportion of the population owning mobile phones increases, it becomes harder and harder to convince the remaining people to sign-up. So now mobile phone companies are starting to change their strategic emphasis. The first quarter showed a slump in subscriber growth as the companies’ change in strategy started to show its effects.
One2One has traditionally focused on customer acquisition through heavily subsidizing mobile phone schemes. However, it is now looking to increase margins through reducing subsidies and thereby increasing its profits. During Q1 only 657,000 people joined the network, compared to 1.2 million over the previous three months. The figures might be excused: after all, it was the first quarter; a period traditionally bad for attracting subscribersbut One2One is not alone.
Vodafone has also demonstrated the slowdown in customer growth as it too focuses on improving its profit margins. It attracted 600,000 UK customers last quarter, slightly lower than market expectations. BT Cellnet was more upbeat though; with its 918,000 new subscribers it did rather better than expected. But Cellnet is also joining its rivals in plans to maximize revenue from existing subscribers.
The maturing mobile phone industry in the UK seems to be making radical changes. With more than 60% of the British public already owning mobile phones, phone companies are focusing on retaining their current subscribers and making as much money from them as possible. Market penetration is unlikely to exceed 80% and efforts to attract new customers will now begin to take a back seat. While the number of new subscribers won’t look as impressive as in previous years, the bottom-line will certainly make up for the change.
