UK - O2 Continues to Lead, but Vodafone Coming Back into Contention"

The first quarter of 2007 has produced divergent performances from the UK's leading operators. Two of the five network operators saw a drop in customer numbers, while one of the two large MVNOs had the same experience. The clear winner in the quarter was Vodafone, which produced an increase of over 600k, but the winner over a one year's view was quite clearly O2, helped, in part, by the growing success of the Tesco Mobile MVNO. A total of 533k new connections were made in the quarter, to take the UK total to 67.5m and 111% penetration.

O2 has been the market leader in the UK for the last three years, at least in terms of customer numbers. Its stated ARPUs are marginally lower than Vodafone's, but its consolidated results fall some way short. In the first quarter of this financial year, O2 UK reported sales of €1,759m, or approximately

Posted to the site on 5th June 2007