Market information update

Mobile summary

• Subscriber growth has slowed. Growth in the quarter to March was 3%, compared to 8% in the same quarter of the previous year
• At the end of March 2002 there were just over 46 million mobile subscribers in the UK
• Just under 70% of these were using pre-pay packages
• Call volumes grew by 4% and 'calls and fixed charges' revenues by less than 1% during the period
• Average retail revenue per subscriber decreased during the period. Previously this had been increasing
• Growth of SMS volumes was 14% during the period, reflecting increasing average SMS messages per subscriber
• Average call minutes per subscriber increased for the third successive quarter

Oftel's Fixed mobile update and Mobile market update are published regularly on Oftel's website at www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/market_info/index.htm.

The latest edition of the fixed update, covering the period for Q4 2001/02, was published in August. The latest edition of the mobile update, for Q4 2001/02 (January to March 2002), was published in July 2002.

The latest Annual publication was published in December 2001 and covers data for both the mobile and fixed markets over the five year period for 1996/97 to 2000/01.