Sure has described the latest report from the Office of Utility Regulation on the telecoms market as interesting.

The OUR report, which covers a six month period between July and December 2008, reveals that turnover in the telecoms market increased by 4.5% and that despite the number of mobile customers remaining largely unchanged at 63,000 the average spend per customer had increased by 8.4% compared to the first half of 2008. There are more than 22,000 internet customers and broadband penetration is now at 29%.

“The report reveals some interesting but not unexpected findings,” said Sure’s marketing director Paul Taylor.

“Competition is good for consumers and as the market leader, we did expect some customers to take advantage of mobile number portability but we are delighted that the majority of customers continue to choose Sure as their mobile provider.”

Mr Taylor added that with 63,000 mobile customers, the island was reaching saturation point.

“Based on the population, it is hard to see how much more this can grow and so the challenge now for all operators is to work a lot harder by offering customers excellent service and network reliability, together with solutions and value that they desire. Based on customer feedback, Sure has recently reduced rates for mobile internet to 1p per MB and introduced unlimited text and data plans, plus will be introducing 3G services in the near future. We will continue to offer customers the very latest handsets at the best prices as soon as they are launched and were delighted that we were the first operator to have the much-anticipated iPhone 3GS available to customers.”

Sure believes that there is still some room for growth within the internet market which saw a 6% increase from the first six months of 2008 to the last six months.

“I would expect that this will start to level off within the next year or so but that we will see more and more customers upgrading to faster internet services and continue to see a growth in mobile internet which is becoming increasingly popular. It is likely that customers will have two methods of internet access – from their home computer and then while they are on the move via their handset and so that will have some impact.”