Czech Republic - Vodafone Steals Share from Telefonica

Last month, a new company called MobilKom (unrelated to the Austrian operator) launched a wireless service in the Czech Republic, using CDMA 450 technology. Although the company?s first target is the wireless local loop market, it does have the right to offer mobile services if it chooses. It seems unlikely - the Czech market ended the quarter with a total of 12.16m mobile customers, this equating to 119% penetration.

For the moment at least, the market remains a three way fight between T-Mobile, the market leader, Telefonica-O2 and Vodafone.

The chart below shows the level of net additions by operator over the period since the acquisition of Cesky Mobile by Vodafone; this last quarter is the first since then when all three have taken a roughly equal share of the market, Telefonica?s 34.9% being less than two percentage points clear of second placed Vodafone. The aggregate market share figures show a rather different picture, with T-Mobile at 42%, Telefonica 37.7% and third entrant Vodafone bringing up the rear with 20.3%. Over the period we show, Vodafone has taken 37% of all net additions, but this has only allowed it to increase its overall share from 18.5%, most of this being taken from Telefonica.

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Posted to the site on 12th June 2007