The Belgian mobile telecommunications market reached service revenues of EUR 943 million in the third quarter of this year, down 0.7 percent from the second quarter and up by 0.3 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a report from Telecompaper. Annual data revenue growth was just enough to compensate for the continuous pressure on prices due to MTA and voice roaming price cuts. KPN subsidiary Base outperformed the market and was the only operator to grow revenues annually and increase its market share to almost 18 percent. Mobistar and Base showed stable revenues compared to Q2 2009 while Proximus lost slightly more. Proximus' market share dropped slightly to 47 percent, while Mobistar's reached just over 35 percent. In terms of mobile subscribers (including MVNOs), the Belgian market increased by only 0.5 percent or 60,000 during the third quarter to reach a total of over 12.3 million. This was the fifth consecutive quarter of slower customer growth compared with year-earlier periods. Market penetration rose to 114.6 percent at the end of September 2009, from 109.8 percent at the end of the third quarter 2008. Proximus remained the market leader with a more than 40 percent market share, followed by Mobistar. Base was able to increase its third-place position, reaching a market share of almost 29 percent in the third quarter of 2009. Telecompaper predicts the Belgian market to decline 0.5 percent to around EUR 3.7 billion in 2009. For 2010 expectations are similar, with service revenues seen stable or slightly down.
