AMONG corporate clients in Slovakia, almost 93 percent of companies use mobile phones. A majority of all company SIM-cards, 62 percent, are supplied by Orange Slovensko, according to a survey of the telecommunications market by the TNS Aisa Slovakia agency. SIM-cards from T-Mobile Slovensko are used by 36 percent of corporate clients, while 2 percent use the services of the third mobile operator, Telefónica O2 Slovakia. In the poll, 16 percent of companies said they used the services of all three mobile operators. In total, the poll, conducted in 2007, covered 893 companies, the SITA newswire reported on March 18.
The report’s results indicate that the market for corporate mobile phone customers has been saturated, with those companies who do not now use mobile phone services showing very little interest in doing so. “Even if all the companies who declared that they intend to start using mobile phones really did, penetration would increase by less than 1 percent,” the report reads. “On the other hand, 7 percent of current mobile phone users say they are interested in acquiring more mobile phones.”
By the end of 2007, the penetration of mobile services in Slovakia had increased by 16.98 percent year-on-year, to 113.44 percent, according to SITA. By December 31, 2007, all three Slovak mobile operators - Orange Slovensko, T-Mobile Slovensko and Telefónica O2 Slovakia – had registered 6.126 million clients, an increase of about 917,000 customers year-on-year. The operators’ data comprise the total number of clients, including SIM-cards used to operate GSM ports, mobile internet services, telemetry, etc., so it is not possible to determine the total number of physical clients for each mobile operator.
According to the methodology used by Slovak mobile operators, Orange Slovensko registered 3,194,000 clients by the end of last December, an increase of 6.1 percent year-on-year. T-Mobile Slovensko registered a total of 2,367,000 clients to the end of last December, an increase of 7.6 percent. Telefónica O2 Slovakia only entered the Slovak market in February 2007; by the end of the year, it had registered 565,000 clients.
