Meteor increases customer base to 113,000

Meteor said yesterday that it now has 113,000 customers. This is better than expected, as when Meteor launched on 22nd February, 2001 it aimed to get 100,000 customers by the end of its first year in operation.

78% of its customers were won over from Digifone or Vodafone. However, this represents only 3.1% of the Irish market and to be profitable the company needs to have 250,000 customers. It hopes to achieve profitability by early 2003.

CEO David Sims said that the average revenue per user [ARPU] at Meteor is now €27 per month for pre-paid and €103 for post paid subscribers, the latter group making up only 3.5% of its customers.

Meteor's GPRS service is ready to launch but the company will launch it only when it feels it has a big enough audience. It has not decided whether or not to apply for a 3G licence.