The prospects for mobile operators to continue adding subscribers in the key European markets are minimal following a report that ownership is set to breach 75 per cent of the population, analysts said.

The latest survey of European mobile phone ownership by Mobile Communications magazine shows that penetration in Europe reached 74.5 per cent at the end of June with the total number of subscriptions across the region at 289.7 million.

The rise in new subscribers is slowing rapidly, putting pressure on mobile operators to deliver revenue growth through selling more services.

New subscribers have been growing at a rate of less than 0.5 per cent a month this year, according to the survey, a marked slowdown on previous years. In 2000 monthly growth peaked at 5.1 per cent.

As a result, analysts said mobile operators were concentrating their future efforts on increasing average revenues per user (ARPU) in light of the expected slowdown in new connections.

"The maturity of the subscriber base means the top line growth needs to come from ARPU growth," said Mr Simon Weeden, analyst at Goldman Sachs.

"To achieve this operators are concentrating on new data services such as camera phones. If operators can get enough volumes, it could be a camera phone Christmas."

Western Europe's most saturated market, according to the survey, is Luxembourg, reflecting the country's wealth and the large number of workers who commute to Luxembourg from neighbouring countries.

Many of these workers buy their mobile phones in Luxembourg, contributing to the high market penetration figure of more than 99 per cent.

Of Europe's larger markets, penetration is highest in Italy and Sweden with levels of 89 per cent and 84 per cent respectively.

With less than 44 per cent population penetration, Gibraltar has the lowest level of mobile phone ownership in Europe, partly reflecting the fact that some users buy their mobiles in mainland Spain.

Shani Raja, editor of Mobile Communications, cautions that there is an element of double counting in the survey as significant but unknown numbers of adults in Europe possess more than one mobile.

Eastern Europe is making up for much of the slowdown, with new subscribers up more than 50 per cent in the year to end-June. Mobile subscribers in eastern Europe now exceed 48 million, or almost a quarter of the population.

- (Financial Times Service)