The company formed by the merging of the UK operations of the  prominent mobile network operators T-Mobile and Orange has reported a sluggishness in the signing up of fresh customers to their contracts.

Formed last year Everything Everywhere has reported a 160,000 contracts net addition in the 2011 quarter one. This figure shows a draw from the previous year's toll of 222,000 customers.

It is further intriguing that the net addition of contracts in the quarter before had been 300,000.

Raising the contract numbers has been a key target for the firm since they appeared more profitable, besides offering a more dependable income than the pay as you go packages.

Out of its 27.7 million customers, some 45 per cent were currently on contracts up from 41 per cent an year back.

However, the total number of customers declined by 0.6 per cent following a drop by 6 per cent in the prepaid deals' number. A decline by 10.9 per cent in the home owners subsribing to its broadband package.