Published: 2018
Total Pages:
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The current study provides comprehensive data on 2018 retail prices of mobile broadband offers for consumers in the EU28, Iceland, Norway, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, and the USA. The largest Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in each country were included. In February 2018, data was collected from provider websites. 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. Comparing normalised prices in Euro, the inexpensive countries for mobile broadband in the EU are Italy, Poland, Austria, France, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, and Finland. Prices differ considerably between the least and most expensive countries in the EU. The four most high-priced countries are Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Greece. Prices for broadband mobile internet usage in Europe have fallen significantly since 2017. Comparison of EU28 prices with prices in selected non-EU countries (Iceland, Norway, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, and the USA) in 2018 showed that, on average, mobile broadband in the EU28 is about as expensive as or is more expensive than in the non-European countries, for most of the OECD usage baskets. No offers adapted to the lowest OECD usage levels were found in South Korea and the United States.