Europe Q3 2006 Market Rankings

The ten largest markets by total customer base size at the end of Q3 2006 remain unchanged from both previous quarters. Germany - the largest country in Europe by population - also has the largest mobile customer base, with 79.4m mobile connections at the end of Q3 2006.

Italy remains second to Germany despite the United Kingdom, Turkey and France all having larger populations, by virtue of a penetration rate which now exceeds 130%.

The three larger countries occupy third, fourth and fifth places, respectively, in the mobile customer base ranking at the end of Q3 2006, but should rightly be fourth, second and third, respectively, by reference to the size of their populations. Together the top five markets account for 51% of all European mobile customers.

Further down the list, sixth placed Ukraine is larger by population than fifth placed Spain, and its mobile customer base is expanding far faster than that of its Western European counterpart. However, for the time being it remains 6m customers behind, with a base of 39.7m to Spain's 45.7m.

Poland is Europe's other very large country, occupying seventh place in the ranking, with a population of 38.5m and a mobile customer base just over 90% of that size. The Netherlands remains ahead of Romania in ninth place, although with a lead of just 339k.

As we predicted three months ago, the fourth quarter of 2006 will almost certainly see the two countries swap places as Romania's larger population finally tells.

This article was extracted from The Mobile World Briefing, the weekly newsletter from The Mobile World. To download a sample issue of the Briefing in PDF format, please click here. For more information including full subscription pricing, please visit The Mobile World"

Posted to the site on 19th December 2006