According to CTK, the two incumbent Slovak mobile operators, T-Mobile and Orange, increased their number of clients by 10.2% y/y to 5.21m in 2006, representing 96.5% penetration. Orange's client base increased by 11% y/y to 3.01m (58% market share) and T-Mobile's by 8.9% y/y to 2.2m (42% market share).
Our view: Although TEF O2 Slovakia (subsidiary of TEF O2 CR) reported better-than-expected figures of 600,000 registered customers at the launch of its operations on 2 February 2007, we see the News on 2006 stats as slightly negative for the company high penetration significantly reduces operating space going forward. On top of that, as we commented previosly, reported registered customers are predominantly users of the two other mobile players and TEF O2 Slovakifore the figure is somewhat less meaningful and we expect TEF O2 Slovakia to have lower ARPU than the than the 2 big operators.