Mobile News

Prepaid has become a significant force in western Europe, over 60% of the total base is using prepaid services now. In 1999 and 2000, over 80% of net additions were for prepaid services and, as penetration in the region heads towards an astonishing 70%, there are signs that operators are now beginning to rethink their strategies for prepaid–seeking higher value customers rather than simply chasing numbers.

Italy embraced prepaid in a big way from the outset and now leads the region’s prepaid market in every respect–prepaid numbers, market share and operators. Both the leading operators for prepaid are in Italy.

In addition to the country case studies of Austria, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK, there follows brief profiles of some other of the region’s prepaid markets.