Amaysim holds 30 percent of MVNO market, hits 1m customers

Australian telecommunications provider Amaysim has announced that it now holds almost 30 percent of the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market in Australia thanks to its acquisition of Vaya, with the group now counting over 1 million customers.

According to Amaysim CEO Julian Ogrin, Amaysim's market share equates to "close to 3 percent" of overall Australian mobile market share.

"We're seeing a new normal, with Aussies catching on to a better way of mobile and shaking off the shackles of traditional telco contracts," Ogrin said.

"Aussie mobile users are at a real tipping point of change, with over 3 million people on lapsed contracts that haven't yet made the move and the BYO market becoming more popular than ever before."

According to Ogrin, 65 percent of customers switching providers now opt for a BYO no-contract option.

Amaysim in August announced a full-year net profit of AU$12.31 million, down 48.7 percent from the AU$24 million reported a year ago due to its acquisitions of Vaya and Australian Broadband Services (AusBBS).

Revenue increased by 19.3 percent, from AU$212.6 million to AU$253.5 million, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) were up 79.3 percent from AU$14 million to AU$25.1 million.

Last month, according to the Australian Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) statistics for July to September 2016, consumer complaints about Amaysim rose slightly, from 0.9 per 10,000 services in operation a year ago to 1.1 this quarter.

Communications director Ged Mansour last month said that after acquiring Vaya for AU$70 million in January, Amaysim managed to bring down the "huge level of complaints" associated with the former company by introducing a new workplace culture.

"It's about instilling a culture of simplicity and a culture of compliance across the industry, whether you're big or small," Mansour said.

"And we dove in straight away, and while we see Vaya as the real price fighter, whereas Amaysim is more about the customer experience, there was some basic things that we could do straight away, like remove unnecessary fees, make some of the plans easier to understand, make the plans even more powerful for customers that really are wallet conscious.

"As a result, we saw complaints through the TIO drop by 80 or 90 percent when you look at year-on-year comparisons."

Amaysim acquired fellow MVNO Vaya for AU$70 million in January via AU$5 million in cash, AU$15 million in Amaysim scrip, and assumption of Vaya's AU$50 million liability to Optus.

Its AU$4 million acquisition of AusBBS in July was part of its effort to enter the National Broadband Network (NBN) retail market.