According ZDnet.co.uk, O2UK added 3.5x as many new subs in 3Q08 as they did in the same period last year (3Q07, just in case you were wondering!!). O2UK has over 19mn subscribers, which is a monstrous amount – and easily makes it the largest in the country….
The ‘halo’ effect of the iPhone 3G (and probably still echoes of iPhone 2G too, due to brand awareness), and the Simplicity tariffs have contributed to this success. Being both an iPhone user and simplicity tariff holder myself, guess I’ve added to those stats 🙂
Of course, the times-are-a-changing – the economy has now taken a major nose-dive – and it’s going to be interesting to see how O2UK (and of course the other OpCos) adapt to this. One factor which will be crucial will be that of “churn” – when a customer leaves the network. From the same recent data, O2 have been doing well in this respect, pushing churn down towards the 1% level.
Apparently, voice ARPU (average revenue per user) fell, but data ARPU is up – and importantly this isn’t exclusively SMS usage (which is classified as data) – it was actually usage of products such as mobile internet access.
Overall then, some nice data to see from O2 – unfortuately there’s always a bit of a lag, so once we have seen the data for 1Q and 2Q this year, that will really tell us the effect that economy is having on our leading UK Operator…. let’s hope they weather it well.
[Via: ZDnet.co.uk]