Published: 2017
Total Pages:
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The current study provides comprehensive data on 2017 retail prices of mobile broadband offers for consumers in the EU28, Iceland, Norway, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, and the USA. The two or three largest Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in each country were included. Data was collected from ISP websites in February 2017 for offers including telephony and in July 2017 for data-only offers. Offers were analysed to determine the least expensive offer in each country for each of the standard mobile internet usage baskets defined by the OECD. To support valid cross-national comparison of retail prices of mobile broadband offers in respect of a usage basket, consistent price normalisation procedures were applied. These take full account of contractual features affecting usage costs such as one-off fees, discounts, contract duration, and limits for telephony call time, numbers of SMS, and data volumes. Applying the normalised prices in Euro, it was found that the least expensive countries for mobile broadband in the EU in 2017 were Poland, Austria, Italy, Lithuania, and Latvia. Prices differ considerably between the least and most expensive countries in the EU. The most expensive countries are Greece, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, and Hungary. With the exception of prices in one usage basket, prices for broadband mobile internet usage in Europe have fallen significantly since 2016. Comparison of EU28 prices with prices in selected non-EU countries (Iceland, Norway, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, and the USA) in 2017 showed that, on average, mobile broadband in the EU28 is about as expensive as or more expensive than in the non-European countries for most of the OECD usage baskets.