MVNOs in France

If we look at market figures, they do not weigh a lot in the French mobile market. Less than 1% of the subscriber base (about 425k subscribers) for about 10 MVNOs operating now in France. But growth is much more impressive. In 1Q06 they added almost 146k new users, or a growth rate of 55% in 3 months to be compared with about 8% growth for the global mobile market,and MVNO sales accounted in the quarter for about 5%+ of total mobile quarterly sales.

Tele2 is the strongest MVNO with about 45% market share (190k users) and targets 1m users by 2008. NRJ Mobile or Virgin Mobile are positioned on the youth segment. Neuf Mobile and TF1 Mobile will be rapidly operational in coming months. Big retailers and supermarkets, such as Carrefour, FNAC and Auchan will soon join the pack and contribute eating a piece of the Big 3 mobile operator's cake (Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom).