The churn figures for the first half of 2017 show an impressive achievement for Hot Mobile Ltd., with a net gain of 32,000 subscribers. The biggest loser in net subscribers was Golan Telecom Ltd. with a loss of 27,700 subscribers.
Next after Hot Mobile was Rami Levy Cellular, which recruited 18,900 subscribers with a focused appeal to the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector with offers including unlimited calls and messages, but without a surfing package.
In third place was 019 Mobile with 11,400 new subscribers in the first half of the year. At the same time, it should be noted that the total churn volume is on a downtrend, with companies taking six months to recruit the same number of subscribers they recruited in a single month following the reform in the cellular market.
Hot Mobile is still the market leader, offering a NIS 49 monthly package with unlimited surfing. It appears that the public is simply willing to pay another few shekels for the sake of not having to worry about whether or not the monthly surfing quota has been reached.
Among the veteran companies, Pelephone Communications Ltd. was the only one to post a net subscriber gain, and even that was only 5,600 subscribers over six months. Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL shed 1,900 subscribers, and Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) lost no fewer than 24,000 subscribers.
The trend in June was largely the same. HOT Mobile led with a gain of 4,000 subscribers, following by Rami Levy with 3,900 and 019 Mobile with 1,900. Golan Telecom lost 5,800 subscribers in June alone. Pelephone gained 3,000 subscribers, Cellcom added a negligible 326 subscribers, and Partner shed 6,700 subscribers.
In monetary terms, it is easy to see how the companies are still losing revenue, but the calculation of multiplying the number of subscribers lost by an average of NIS 50 a month is inaccurate, because churn does not include the lower prices paid by subscribers who did not leave, remaining with the same company after the company lowered its price in order to avoid losing the customers. It appears that the downtrend in prices will persist in the second half of the year.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on July 2, 2017
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