[3GScottishUser]

Mobile Today published the table below to illustrate the state of play in relation to the number of customers each UK network has presently.

No figuers for 3 UK as they dont publish quarterly statistics like all the others although some new statisticsshould be available when HWL publish their bi-annual results later this month.

The article reports:

"O2 started 2007 with a solid lead in customer numbers, with Vodafone and T-Mobile trailing behind O2's 17.6 million.

T-Mobile's total customers fell from 17.2 million to 16.9 million in 2006.

The battle for new customers in the fourth quarter was tough, with Vodafone winning by miles. O2 and T-Mobile both found between 200,000 and 300,000 new customers, while Virgin Mobile struggled.

Virgin's net customer additions for the final quarter of 2006 slumped to just 11,100, compared with over 192,000 in the final quarter of the previous year.

The network blamed its lower-than-expected customer growth on increased price competition and higher advertising spend from mobile customers.

Over six million of O2 and Vodafone's customers are now on contract, and both businesses are doing a high percentage of their business direct.

T-Mobile's contract customer base represents 22% of total customers, compared with 17% a year ago. The network's total contract customer base increased 25% to 3.7 million. However, the operator's prepay customer number remains higher than other operators' at 13.2 million."

Customer table posted as photo attachment below.

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/content/15836.asp?men=1&sub=6

[Ben]

Suddenly it's very obvious why T-Mobile is being so aggressive with Flext and Web n Walk. They desperately want more of the contract action.

Vodafone's additions are insane, but god are they justified by quality of service. That they have the highest number of contract customers doesn't surprise me, I bet they've got a tidy number of high spenders amongst those stats.

[Hands0n]

No surprise re Vodafone, really. Excellent service, effective CS and a tariff range that is not exciting but can be competitive.

I think T-Mobile's biggest problem with Flext is that people still do not understand it. I find myself having to constantly explain what Flext is all about and get blank stares while I restructure what I am saying until they get it. Then they're rabid about changing over to it when the time comes to renew their contract.

I really do think that T-Mobile need to do some work on educating the public on just what Flext is all about - the adverts, while amusing, do not really do the product any justice at all - unless you are in the know already!

With Flext and Web N Walk priced as they are I really do think that, if the public knew, that they'd be breaking down T's doors to get service. As soon as a colleague of mine heard about the £29 Web'n'Walk Plus plan with its 3GB of data he almost ran to the PC to place his order!

As far as I can see, no other network comes close to the data value proposition that T-Mobile put on the table!