Smoke and mirrors in mobiles battle

13 April 2012

MOBILE phone industry growth figures are being questioned again. Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile recently boasted 3.7m UK customers, but admits the figure includes an unknown number who have not made a call for up to a year - though the industry norm is three months.

MmO2 said yesterday: 'Industry figures all include some doubling up as a growing number of people have more than one mobile device.'

It commented as it announced that it gained 855,000 new customers in the fourth quarter, including 430,000 in Britain, taking it to 20.1m worldwide. Picture messaging jumped 73% in the three months to 4.5m.

The numbers, beating forecasts, show that mmO2 - the former Cellnet - continues its recovery from years of neglect under BT.

Orange - being reabsorbed into State-controlled France Telecom - gained 2.2m new customers worldwide in the quarter, taking it to 49m.

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