THE mobile phone boom is continuing apace, according to the latest

sales data by the two leaders in the field, Cellnet and Vodafone.

Total subscribers now top two million, with a 46% rise over the past

year taking the figure to 2,190,000.

Cellnet and Vodafone are in fierce head-to-head competition and last

month Vodafone took the laurels, seeing net new subscribers of 58,500

against Cellnet's 46,900.

Vodafone has normally led Cellnet, but the latter has been catching up

and claims to have beaten Vodafone over the past year as a whole, taking

on 360,000 subscribers, representing 53% of the total signed up by the

industry.

Its share of the consumer market is put at 59%. Cellnet has taken

steps to strengthen its links with High Street service providers.

Both operators have moved through the one-million mark, with Vodafone

now claiming a total of 1,174,000 subscribers and Cellnet 1,019,000.

Vodafone said that over 234,000 were on the low-call consumer tariff,

where high-call charges are offset by lower monthly subscription fees.

But a majority chose other higher-margin tariffs.

''March is traditionally a good month for mobile phone sales but it

was particularly pleasing that more than 55% of our net new subscribers

selected the business and digital tariffs,'' said managing director

Chris Gent.

The growth in both companies' subscriber base has accelerated as the

recession has eased, and competition has hotted up. This has prompted

heavier marketing spending.

Both companies have introduced low-cost tariffs to encourage consumers

to enlist and these have proved successful.

''Over the year prices have come down, choice has increased and

competition has been fierce with the winners being the hundreds of

thousands of people who now enjoy the benefits of a mobile phone for the

first time,'' said Cellnet managing director Bob Warner. The company is

a joint venture between BT and Securicor.

Competition will become even fiercer with the recent entry of Mercury

into the market and the imminent start of Hutchison's Orange service.

Mercury has the catchy marketing ploy of free local calls though its

network is limited so far to around the London area. It has not

disclosed how many subscribers it has signed up since starting last

September.