Turnover in the Dutch mobile phone market fell 9% in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the year earlier period, website Telecompaper reports on Thursday.

Total turnover in the first quarter was €1.25bn, compared with €1.37bn a year earlier and €1.29bn in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Telecompaper says the reasons for the continuing fall in turnover are the weak economic climate, the effects of stricter regulations and the sharp decline in the turnover from text messages.

T-Mobile and Vodafone managed to increase turnover in the first quarter, respectively by 2.1% and 0.4%, while KPN saw turnover fall by 2.5%.

Market leader

KPN remains the market leader with 48% of the market at the end of March 2014, although the figure includes MVNO clients who make use of the KPN network. Without the MVNO clients, KPN has 41% of the market.

Vodafone and T-Mobile have grown their customer figures by respectively 32% and 27%.

The total number of sim-cards fell by 1.3% year on year to 20.3 million at the end of March. Telecompaper expects this figure to increase to 22.6 million in 2018.