Mobile Communications in the United Kingdom (UK) - Statistics & Facts

Market dominated by a big four, overall revenue declines

Mobile services are largely provided by seven companies in the UK, with the leading four companies claiming the majority of the market. EE, O2, Vodafone and Three account for 89 percent of the total subscriber base , while companies including Tesco Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Talk Talk customers make up the remainder.

Despite the growth in the number of active mobile subscribers , from 73.8 million subscribers in 2007 to 94.7 million subscribers in 2020, overall revenue generated within the sector has only fallen. Mobile retail revenue reached 12.5 billion British pounds in 2020, lower than the 13.5 billion British pounds generated in 2019, and the fourth year of consecutive decline since the sector generated 17 billion British pounds in 2017.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) data reflects this phenomenon, with mobile telephony apparently getting cheaper for users in the UK. Whereas a post-pay customer could be expected to generate 34.58 British pounds in revenue for a mobile service provider in 2007, that figure fell to 21.25 British pounds by 2016.

Shifting use: data consumption more important than ever

Data also makes up an increasingly important part of the UK's mobile communication landscape. As the 5G rollout gets underway, the amount of data being transferred on the UK networks has increased significantly in recent years. In March 2011, just 9 petabytes of data was transferred across mobile networks in the UK, a figure that would climb to 415 petabytes by June 2020.

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