Category Archives: Churn

Seven signs that competition in Nordic telco is cooling down

The Q3 results just reported by Telia Company, Telenor, Tele2, 3 Scandinavia and Elisa show that it’s quite difficult not to be successful as a Nordic telco today.

Revenue and ARPU is growing. OPEX grows too, but slower than the revenue, so the EBITDA margins are increasing. Churn is decreasing. CAPEX is in decline. More cash is being generated.

We have identified seven signs that competition in cooling down in Nordic telco.

Sign 1. Mobile ARPU grows

Let’s start with Norway. The reported blended mobile ARPU has quite steadily increased for the two MNOs that still report it. For Telenor it grew 4% year-on-year to Q3 2023. For Telia it grew 3%.

Figure 1. Mobile ARPU, Norway (source data: operator reports)

In Sweden, the ARPU development has been a bit more dramatic than in Norway. Three players, first 3, then Telenor and the B2B side of Tele2, witnessed their ARPUs going down from 2018 to the first half of 2021. A corona effect, you might say. Not really; it started before corona started (Q1 2020) and compare with Telia who could keep their ARPU steady or even increase it when 3, Telenor and Tele2 B2B seemingly fought a battle on price.

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Who has the best mobile network in the Nordics – 2023?

Opensignal’s Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 2023 again showed that the mobile networks of Sweden, Finland – and especially Norway and Denmark – provide some of the best experiences in the world. Some Nordic operators are even top ranked in Opensignal’s 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards.

But there are several companies – some with global, some with local ambitions – that offer their take on who has the best mobile network. To differentiate, providers define different metrics and use different methodologies. Rather than boring you with those, we have compiled a cross-case table naming the winner per each metric across three global network experience specialists: Opensignal (now having merged with Tutela), Ookla Speedtest and umlaut.

We have included the latest overall or 5G-specific tests made public in Q4 2022 or 2023.

The named winner per metric in the latest mobile network performance tests performed in Q4 2022 or 2023 by Opensignal, Ookla Speedtest and umlaut. All source links are available at the end of this blog.
Continue reading Who has the best mobile network in the Nordics – 2023?

Who has the best mobile network in the Nordics?

Opensignal’s Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 2022 showed that the mobile networks of Sweden, Finland – and especially Norway and Denmark – provide some of the best experiences in the world.

But there are many companies – some with global, some with local ambitions – that offer their take on who has the best mobile network. To differentiate, providers define different metrics and use different methodologies. Rather than boring you with those, we have compiled a cross-case table naming the winner per each metric across four global network experience specialists: Opensignal, Tutela, Ookla Speedtest and umlaut.

We have included the latest overall or 5G-specific tests made public in 2021 or 2022.

Continue reading Who has the best mobile network in the Nordics?

How COVID-19 measures improved the margin of operators by improving customer loyalty

When COVID-19 hit the world and governments and authorities enforced restrictions on the society, the whole economy trembled. The telco business was affected, but the change in movement and usage patterns didn’t just bring negatives. Although the high margin mobile roaming revenue was lost, mature market telcos have, generally speaking, never reported higher margins than what they did in the just-closed third quarter of 2020.

We’ll show you what the key to this margin increase is.

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Equipment sales and bundling: Best practices

Analysis & Go-to-market, 2020

Which are the equipment sales models in mobile and how have they developed over time? Can best practices be spotted when comparing equipment sales and profitability for a large number of mature market operators globally?

Using facts: What outputs are different equipment sales models such as subsidy, instalment, leasing, rental and BYOD generating – and how is an early upgrade promise affecting?

In this project we identified and documented a few operator best practices across different models in different markets.

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European FMC propositions and outcome

Analysis & Go-to-market, 2020

How have operators introduced fixed-mobile convergent plans in Europe’s most advanced markets France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands – and in emerging FMC markets like the UK and Sweden? How – and how quickly – did competition react?

Using facts: What is the take-up of these FMC plans? How have the FMC introductions affected mobile and fixed market share, customer churn, acquisition & retention cost, demand for fibre and TV – and revenue and margin?

How do you avoid making FMC a discount-centric thing? How have the best FMC propositions been put together and how have they been marketed? Is there a way to leverage content and exclusivity?

Is 5G changing FMC?

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The FMC hoax

Without subscription growth it’s difficult for mature market operators to report service revenue growth.

Some operators – anxious to still show growth – have thus begun to regularly highlight their fixed-mobile convergence base in quarterly results presentations. It’s most often a smoke screen. Here are seven examples – of which six aren’t growth stories.

From Telefónica’s Q3 2019 presentation (on Spain)
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How South Korea’s operators drive demand for 5G

Reference: Analysis and Go-to-market, 2019

Nowhere else in the world will you find as many 5G users as in South Korea. Nowhere else will you find as many 5G base stations up and running. If there ever was a race to 5G, the Korean government and industry won it.

Seeing is believing: After having dug up, read and compiled all reporting and data on Korea’s mobile business there was no other way forward than to seeing it for ourselves and interview people involved in creating Korea’s ‘5G wonder’.

We spent eight busy days (11-18 July) in Seoul to finish a comprehensive 106-page analysis – full of graphs and photos – with recommendations for European operators.

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How to continue to improve mobile service revenue and customer loyalty

Reference: Analysis and Go-to-market, 2018

Quantitative and qualitative exploration and analysis project starting with a Nonstop Retention® benchmark for a specific country market.

Analysing a wide area of propositions and tactics from several different markets:

  • Multi-user and multi-device plans
  • Fixed-mobile convergent plans
  • Premium value plans and options
  • Flexible plans and sub-brands
  • Early upgrade plans for handsets
  • Loyalty programmes

Identifying best practice with regards to impact on revenue, take-up and customer loyalty. Applying it to the local market competitive context, resulting in a recommendation presented during interactive workshops.

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Five of your questions that Tefficient can answer – now

2019 will be a year with significant uncertainty for many operators. Will we get that frequency license? Will the merger in our market be approved? Will we be able to launch 5G? Will competing fixed wireless propositions steal our broadband customers and erode prices? Will our competitors begin producing original content?

Good then that there are questions that can be answered here and now. These are the ones we know many of you are busy with:

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