Panafon keeps losing ground to CosmOTE
Mobile operator Vodafone Panafon announced yesterday it had added fewer-than-expected new clients in the second quarter, bringing its total clients to 3.04 million, a 21.3-percent increase year-on-year. Panafon, Greece’s second largest operator by client numbers, said it had added 76,108 new subscribers in the quarter to end-June, below market expectations for 94,000 to 102,000 new clients. It said that prepaid users now accounted for 72 percent of its total customer base. The figures keep Panafon, majority-owned by British mobile giant Vodafone, in second place in terms of clients, with rival operator CosmOTE pulling ahead in terms of market share. According to yesterday’s figures, Panafon’s share of the Greek market dropped from 36 percent in the previous quarter to about 35.6 percent at the end of June. CosmOTE, owned by Greece’s OTE Telecom, said earlier in July that its total customers grew 28 percent year-on-year to 3.21 million at the end of June, as it added 136,539 new customers. It now has 37.6 percent of the Greek market. Third operator Stet Hellas reported a 21-percent year-on-year increase in clients to 2.28 million as it added 85,650 new clients in the period. Its market share is flat at 26.7 percent. A fourth mobile operator, owned by Greek IT firm Infoquest, just began operating in June. Panafon said its 49-percent-owned joint venture with Vodafone in Albania had total subscribers of 216,993 at the end of June, after it added 47,511 new customers in the quarter. «On June 30, 2002, Vodafone (Albania) had built a market share of 37.6 percent in less than a year of operation,» Panafon said. Vodafone Albania competes with CosmOTE’s AMC in the neighboring Balkan country. AMC’s clients at the end of June numbered 359,202. Panafon rival CosmOTE has made a bid for an additional second-generation spectrum being sold by the country’s regulator, an industry source said yesterday. «CosmOTE has made a bid for the extra spectrum,» the source told Reuters. The additional spectrum could boost CosmOTE’s roaming revenues. Telecoms regulator EETT has set a minimum bid of 38.16 million euros for the remaining GSM 2×5 MHz spectrum, due to be awarded at the end of July. The deadline for non-binding bids expired yesterday. The regulator will announce a shortlist of participants on July 30, with the auction process due to begin on July 31. (Reuters)
