Eurotel, the country’s No. 1 mobile operator, 51% owned by Cesky Telecom, said yesterday that it had 3.24 mil. users at the end of 2001, implying a 49% growth in the user base for 2001. The reported number is only slightly higher (+2%) than our forecast, and generally should not surprise. RadioMobil, the No. 2 operator, 39% owned by Ceske radiokomunikace, reported 2.8 mil. users, implying 50% growth y-to-y, and only slightly below (-2%) the 2.87 mil. we had expected.
We estimate that Eurotel and RadioMobil had 46% and 40% overall market shares, respectively. Among the newly acquired customers in 2001, the respective shares were some 40% and 35%. Cesky Mobil, the third operator, has not released its latest user figures, but we estimate the end-of-year number of users at 0.96 mil. We estimate the overall Czech mobile penetration at the end of the year at 68%, up from 42% at the end of 2000.
(Ondrej Datka)