Mobile connections/market share by connectionVodafone: 2,444,000 (source: September quarter financial report)Telecom: 2,152,000 (source: September quarter financial report)2degrees: 206,000 (source: 2degrees announcement, February)
Mobile connections/market share by connection
Vodafone: 2,444,000 (source: September quarter financial report)
Telecom: 2,152,000 (source: September quarter financial report)
2degrees: 206,000 (source: 2degrees announcement, February)
Results just filed in the UK by Vodafone PLC show the company's New Zealand operation lost a net 35,000 customers during its September quarter, for a new total of 2,444,000.
RELATED: Vodafone NZ profit plunges
The previous quarter, Vodafone NZ also shed customers, losing 25,000 - meaning the carrier has lost 60,000 in its half-year to September 30.
Before Telecom's May 2009 launch of XT, and 2degrees August 2009 debut, Vodafone had enjoyed years of non-stop customer growth, peaking at 2,511,000 customers just ahead of XT's debut.
The silver lining for Vodafone: it's percentage of customers on pre-pay plans (which generated less revenue and profit than contracts or "post-pay") dropped, once again, to 68.7% (when 2degrees launched in August 2009 it was over 71%).
Telecom losing too
Last week, Telecom announced it had shed 19,000 mobile customers during its September quarter as its CDMA base shrank faster than XT grew.
Telecom's result includes the loss of a bulk number of TelstraClear mobile customers who were shifted to Vodafone 3G as the Australian owned carrier, which lacks its own cellular network, shifted its cellular allegiance.
Unlike Telecom, Vodafone does not include "MVNO" (mobile virtual network operator) customers such as TelstraClear in its total.
Glovebox customers
As it transitions customers on its older CDMA network to XT, Telecom has also been pushing down its percentage of customers on pre-pay, helping to lift its average revenue per user (arpu) per month; arpu nudged up 53c to $26.83 over the year-ago quarter.
Given their pre-pay decline and (at least in Telecom's case) arpu lift, both Telecom and Vodafone are offering the same spin: it's their lower margin customers who're moving to 2degrees; the ones who spend $10 or $12 a month - or the "glovebox" users as Vodafone chief executive Russell Stanners has called them.
Against this, both carriers face a 2degrees that is now moving up the chain, now offering 3G service in main centres, selling its first first contract plans and opening its first retail stores.
2degrees benefiting?
With both major carriers losing customers (and, yes, the TelstraClear deal counts as a loss), the beneficiary would appear to be 2degrees. However, the newcomer has not released customer numbers since a February 26 update, at which it said it had 206,000 active customers. Its next update is scheduled for February 2011.
NBR has estimated, however - give information supplied about number porting by the independent TCF - that 2degrees could now have around 400,000 connections (the situation is muddied by the fact that some people have SIMs for more than one carrier).
