Hungarian Mobile Market Continued Shrinking in September

­September saw the continued shrinking of the Hungarian mobile market, a phenomenon ongoing - with interruptions - since January. The number of clients of the three operators dropped by 558,000 in the first three quarters of 2009, while the number of clients generating sales in the last three months of the year dropped by 342,000 over the course of 9 months, announced the National Communications Authority (NHH).

At the end of September, the three mobile operators had 11.78 million clients, 54,000 less than at the end of August and only 11,000 more than a year before. Calculations performed on the basis of total client numbers show that at the end of September for every hundred subscribers there were 117.6 subscriptions (active SIM cards) as opposed to 118.1 a month before. One year ago this figure was 117.2, which then jumped to 121.8 at the end of December 2008, its highest value yet.

The ratio of subscribers using pre-paid cards among the clients of the three operators continued to decrease over the first 9 months of 2009. One year ago 61.4 percent of the total number of clients used pre-paid cards, while this figure was 61.2 percent at the end of 2008, 59.2 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2009, and only 58.1 percent at the end of September. The market share of these cards was highest in the first quarter of 2003, when it stood at 78.82 percent of the total number of clients.

The number of clients with pre-paid cards was 6.85 million at the end of September 2009, 382,000 less that 9 months earlier and 635,000 less than a year before. The number of clients with monthly subscriptions, however, is increasing despite the drop of total client figures. At the end of September, the three operators had 4.94 million monthly subscriptions, 393,000 more than in September 2008 and 194,000 more than at the end of December 2008.

Based on the number of active SIM cards, in September Vodafone's market share rose from 21.14 to 21.37 percent, while that of T-Mobile and Pannon dropped from 44.31 to 44.19 percent and 34.54 to 34.44 percent, respectively. This means that over the last 12 months Vodafone increased its market share by 0.58 and T-Mobile by 0.39 percentage points, while Pannon lost 0.97 points.

The number of clients included in the sales figures - subscribers with subscriptions, or subscribers originating or receiving calls in the last three months - in September 2009 dropped by 8,000 to 10.65 million. Taking the whole year into account, the number of clients generating sales shows an increase of 175,000 compared to September 2008, and looking at the first 9 months of 2009 we also see a drop that is significantly smaller in proportion - 342,000 - than the decrease affecting the total number of clients.

Based on the number of clients included in the sales figures, in September Vodafone's and T-Mobile's market share climbed from 21.94 to 22.10 percent, and 44.65 to 44.66 percent from August figures, respectively. At the same time, Pannon's share dropped from 33.41 to 33.25 percent. Looking at the whole year, however, Vodafone's market share decreased by 0.27 percentage points, while Pannon's and T-Mobile's share increased by 0.13 and 0.15 percentage points, respectively.

In September, the clients of the three mobile operators ported 7,255 numbers, and a total of 43,676 numbers in the first 9 months of 2009. According to NHH data, since its introduction on 1 May 2004 number porting has been taken advantage of in the case of 289,849 mobile numbers.

Posted to the site on 28th October 2009