The telecommunications sector is experiencing a dance of mergers that is still not entirely clear. The possibility that Vodafone and MásMóvil are involved in merger processes with each other, or with Orange, is very present these days. Meanwhile, MásMóvil, the fourth operator in the Spanish market, has surpassed Vodafone, the third, in the number of fixed broadband customers at the end of 2021.
MásMóvil overtakes Vodafone
The Spanish subsidiary of Vodafone concluded the third quarter of 2021 (October-December) with a total of 3,061 million broadband customers, compared to the more than 3,065 million with which the MásMóvil group has ended. The latter adding all its brands: including those of Grupo MásMóvil, Grupo Euskaltel and other acquired companies, such as the local group Ahimás.
Due to the Vodafone customer churn trend and the favorable evolution of MásMóvil was an expected process within the telecoms sector. A downward trend for Vodafone that has been present since the July-September 2020 quarter, in which it has registered net losses of broadband customers in all quarters, that is, in the last five. Since this date, when it reported 3,230 million active lines, it has lost 169,000 users to 3,061 at the end of 2021, that is, an average of 34,000 per quarter.
But nevertheless, MásMóvil has been adding lines organically and also due to the incorporation of new acquired operators such as Euskaltel, R, Telecable, Virgin Telco and Ahimás. With the sum of the different operators, the group has gained more than 500,000 lines during those five quarters, until the end of 2021 with a figure of more than 3,065 lines. Taking all this into account, the quarterly broadband growth of MásMóvil customers has been slowing down little by little. The reason? “The more than 200,000 lines that it added (in comparable terms) between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first of 2021, fell to just over 100,000 in the two following quarters and to around 65,000 in the last quarter of the year.”
Strong low-cost competition
The main reason why MásMóvil has slowed down the growth of new clients is due to the strong competition in the low cost market, mainly from operators such as Digi or Finetwork. Even so, Vodafone continues to be above MásMóvil in total revenue. “With the data for the end of 2020, Vodafone billed 4,166 million compared to the sum of 2,627 million for MásMóvil plus Euskaltel.” The red operator also continues to be above in mobile lines (13.47 million compared to 11.30 million in the third quarter of 2021).
Vodafone overtakes Orange in retail revenue
The British group is ahead of Orange in retail revenue. In the third quarter of 2021, Vodafone Spain’s total revenue in the retail market exceeded that of Orange, in terms of market share, according to the latest figures from the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), in charge of regulate this industry.
Retail revenues are neither more nor less than those obtained by the operators by your end customerswhether residential or business. In this market, Vodafone stood at 17.4%, compared to 17.1% for the orange operator. This is not the first time this has happened, as Orange overtook Vodafone in total revenue several years ago. The French manages to overcome it thanks to the great income it achieves in the wholesale marketthat is, to rent their fixed and mobile networks to other operators.
On the other hand, it must be taken into account that Orange is the main provider of the fixed and mobile network of MásMóvil. The growth of clients has been fattening what it pays to Orange. In the third quarter of 2021, Orange’s wholesale revenues accounted for more than 19% of total revenues. Finally, the market share of Movistar, Orange and Vodafone’s retail revenues is tapering off. In the third quarter of 2021 the big three reached 75.8% compared to 76.7% in the same period of 2020.