The latest Kantar data for Australia telco market share shows the prepaid sector up 4.5% vs a year ago to 35.7%, with over 75% on a ‘recharge as needed’ tariff type, with competition intensifying.
While pre-paid is clearly growing, as noted above, Kantar states "postpaid represents 64.3% of the total mobile market, with almost half on a standard phone and SIM contract."
The "SIM only" options increase to over "one third of postpaid, gaining popularity among females aged over 35, in particular."
So, Kantar's research shows that at the total market level, "Optus, Vodafone and Amaysim enjoy share growth while Telstra suffers a decline."
{loadposition alex08}Within the prepaid market, "Optus, Vodafone and Amaysim gain share year on year, with this sector driving the decline in Telstra’s overall share."
Why?
It turns out that "the desire for cheaper calls and a larger data allowance grow as factors for influencing choice of network, with both of these reasons becoming increasingly important among customers choosing Vodafone and Amaysim.
"The result for Vodafone is a shift in the customer profile towards males aged under 25, who have been attracted to the generous data plans of 6GB or more."
Then there's the “SIM only – monthly billing” tariff type, which" grows in popularity within total prepaid which is where Amaysim is heavily concentrated, with over 40% of its prepaid base falling into this category."
Interestingly for Amaysim, "having traditionally had an over 35 age bias and some of the lowest spending customers in prepaid, Amaysim users have seen their profile shift towards younger ages and ARPU increase to $31, bringing spend more in line with the market average with between 2GB-4GB of data included."
And, while the postpaid market "remains the biggest," it "continues to lose to prepaid, with competition between the three major carriers intensifying."
Huge data allowances "in excess of 10GB are becoming commonplace but at more competitive prices, allowing consumers’ monthly bills to shift towards mid-range prices between $30-$60."
Now, while Telstra and Optus "increase share compared to a year ago, Optus remains broadly stable on last quarter and Telstra share drops back over the same period. In contrast, share growth is noticed for Vodafone, increasing by 1.3% vs last quarter to 15.7%."
And in case you were wondering, "Telstra and Optus are the main sources of new Vodafone customers, who have taken advantage of the double data plans on offer, with $40-$50 plans the most popular, entitling users to up to 20GB of data."
"Vodafone’s postpaid customer profile sees a significant shift towards females aged under 25 compared to September 2016."
Here's Kantar Worldpanel Comtech's charts with all the numbers and detail:
