Vodafone New Zealand, the country's biggest mobile phone operator, reported a drop in customer numbers, as new market entrant Two Degrees Mobile wins subscribers off its larger rivals.
Auckland-based Vodafone had 2.42 million customers as at December 31, down from 2.434 million at the end of October, according to its London Stock Exchange-listed parent's quarterly statement.
The phone company shed 14,000 customers in the quarter, adding to the 24,000 lost in the previous quarter.
"In New Zealand service revenue growth was impacted by voice and SMS termination rate cuts and the uptake of more competitively tariffs," the parent company said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.
Two Degrees Mobile announced yesterday it had grabbed more customers from Telecom and Vodafone. It now has 875,656 customers after two-and-a-half-years in the market, almost 300,000 more than when it last announced its customer numbers last year.
That gives it about 16 percent of the mobile phone market, which is led by Vodafone, followed by Telecom with 2.079 million customers.
NZN