Vodafone on top of the Sydney mobile market

Vodafone has grown to become the top mobile provider in Sydney by market share, making it the only capital city where Telstra is not the market leader.

Analysis from Roy Morgan Research indicates that Vodafone captured a 30.4% share of the Sydney market between July and December last year. This compares to 27.9% for Telstra and 26.5% for Optus.

In all other markets, Telstra is on top of the leaderboard. Optus is in second place in every other market besides Perth, where it is third behind Vodafone.

 Roy Morgan Research CEO Michele Levine said the results also show that Sydney is the most closely fought market of the capital cities.

“Sydney is worth over $2.6 billion a year to mobile service providers, and the big three network operators between them own 83.3% of the market,” she said.

“Competition is at its peak in Sydney: Telstra would only need to steal 50,000 Vodafone customers to claim the lead, and Optus need only win 27,000 of Telstra’s to bump the national provider down into third spot.”

She said Vodafone’s anomalous lead in Sydney could potentially be attributed to its stronger retail presence in the market. Vodafone has over 50% more stores in Sydney than it does in Melbourne, and the research suggests that nearly three in five mobile owners in both cities purchased their device from a retail store.

“Vodafone’s share of owners and their dollars in each city is actually remarkably similar when looked at ‘per store’. In both Sydney and Melbourne, Vodafone has just over 7000 customers per store, worth around $430,000 a month,” Levine noted.

“Vodafone has just over 50% more stores in Sydney — so is it any wonder its share of the market (and revenue) is also just over 50% higher?”

Nationally Telstra is far ahead of its rivals, with a market share of 43.6% — compared to 24.1% for Optus and 18% for Vodafone.

Image courtesy of Jonathan Oakley under CC

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