STUTTGART, Germany -- Alternative carriers in France, Germany, Spain and the UK are seeing their shares in terms of net revenue grow since 2002. Competition is continuously heating up within these markets (broadband, datacom, CaTV, fixed and mobile telephony and Internet) in addition to an upcoming trend, the market entrance of new players without any telecom background such as VNOs.

In the UK, alternative carriers collectively have about 68,4% of the market in 2005, the largest share among the four countries in this benchmark. This is of course an exceptional situation as BT’s former mobile subsidiary O2 is now part of Telefonica. In the other three countries the alternative carriers achieve a cumulated weight in the range of 37% to 45%.

France Telecom group and Telefonica group are two incumbents, beside the exceptional case of BT, defending the best their market positions among the four, accounting for 61,5% and 62,7% of the market, respectively. Germany’s alternative carriers hold 44,6% of the market with Vodafone (including its fixed line carrier Arcor), E-Plus, and O2, among the most important ones. As a result of the significant competition on the German market, Deutsche Telekom experienced the highest market share loss between 2002 and 2005, with a 8,6% points loss, followed by France Telecom and Telefonica, both losing 6,8% points, while BT lost within its fixed operations only 5,5% points.

InfoCom Research Inc.