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30-07-2004, 01:11 PM
From Mobile Today (30/07/2004):
Tough competition in the UK market has hit Orange hard, with the first significant fall in its UK customer base.
The figures for the last quarter compare poorly to rivals O2 and Vodafone, who have both shown growth.
In France Telecom’s six month results up to 30 June, Orange UK reported 13.747 million customers in the UK – a fall of 73,000 in the three months between 31 March and 30 June.
Orange’s figures came just days after rivals O2 (see page 10) and Vodafone (page 3) reported 261,000 and 132,000 net quarterly additions respectively. Along with 3’s continued aggressive customer acquisition drive, Orange is finding itself struggling to maintain its top two position in the UK market in terms of customer share.
Orange UK MD John Allwood claimed that the quality, not quantity, of customers was more important: ‘In the UK, as [Orange France head Didier Quillot said] in France, we are concentrating on value,’ he argued.
‘We are keeping churn low (it’s the lowest in the UK) and contrary to some of our competitors, we are not buying customers but concentrating on maintaining our margins and our customer base. You have to look at the overall performance, not just in terms of market growth.’
Now the good news…
Allwood’s argument of quality over quantity is highlighted by Orange’s success in increasing revenues by 11.2% since June 2003.
In the UK, the operator claims the lowest churn rate among the Big Four, and has seen a 2.6% increase in blended ARPU to £274 (£577 contract, £127 pre-pay), over the same period.
Part of this was from Orange’s focus on improving its pre/post-pay mix among its UK customers, with contract customers now accounting for 33.1% of the base, up from 32.6% in March.
(Image - John Allwood.
URL: http://www.m o b i l e n e w s .co.uk/artman/publish/article_868.shtml (Remove Spaces)
Tough competition in the UK market has hit Orange hard, with the first significant fall in its UK customer base.
The figures for the last quarter compare poorly to rivals O2 and Vodafone, who have both shown growth.
In France Telecom’s six month results up to 30 June, Orange UK reported 13.747 million customers in the UK – a fall of 73,000 in the three months between 31 March and 30 June.
Orange’s figures came just days after rivals O2 (see page 10) and Vodafone (page 3) reported 261,000 and 132,000 net quarterly additions respectively. Along with 3’s continued aggressive customer acquisition drive, Orange is finding itself struggling to maintain its top two position in the UK market in terms of customer share.
Orange UK MD John Allwood claimed that the quality, not quantity, of customers was more important: ‘In the UK, as [Orange France head Didier Quillot said] in France, we are concentrating on value,’ he argued.
‘We are keeping churn low (it’s the lowest in the UK) and contrary to some of our competitors, we are not buying customers but concentrating on maintaining our margins and our customer base. You have to look at the overall performance, not just in terms of market growth.’
Now the good news…
Allwood’s argument of quality over quantity is highlighted by Orange’s success in increasing revenues by 11.2% since June 2003.
In the UK, the operator claims the lowest churn rate among the Big Four, and has seen a 2.6% increase in blended ARPU to £274 (£577 contract, £127 pre-pay), over the same period.
Part of this was from Orange’s focus on improving its pre/post-pay mix among its UK customers, with contract customers now accounting for 33.1% of the base, up from 32.6% in March.
(Image - John Allwood.
URL: http://www.m o b i l e n e w s .co.uk/artman/publish/article_868.shtml (Remove Spaces)