Mobile broadband prices : prices as of February 2016 : executive summary.
Date: 2016-11-04
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology
Subjects: Internet, Internet access provider, cost price, household consumption, information technology, mobile phone, report, sample survey, telecommunications, telecommunications equipment, telecommunications policy, transmission network

Mobile Broadband prices 

Prices as of February 2016 

Executive Summary 

A study prepared for the European Commission 
DG Communications Networks, Content & Technology by: 

Digital 
Single 
Market 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This study was carried out for the European Commission by 

Internal identification 
Contract number :  30-CE-0741840/00-00 
SMART number: 2015/0025 

DISCLAIMER 

By the European Commission, Directorate-General of Communications Networks, Content & Technology.  

The information and views set out in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official 
opinion of  the  Commission. The Commission does not guarantee  the accuracy of  the  data  included  in this study.  Neither 
the  Commission  nor  any  person  acting  on  the  Commission’s  behalf  may  be  held  responsible  for  the  use  which  may  be 
made of the information contained therein. 

ISBN: 978-92-79-59298-0 
doi:10.2759/502139 

Copyright © 2016 – European Union. All rights reserved. Certain parts are licensed under conditions to the EU.  
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. 

2 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The completion of the  Digital Single market being one of the  10 priorities of the  Juncker Commission, the 
developments  in  the  electronic  communications  market  continue  to  be  closely  monitored  by  the  EC.  In 
recent years, elements like coverage and take-up of mobile broadband have been added to fixed broadband 
indicators,  and  as  of  2015,  the  Commission  has  started  to  monitor  and  analyse  the  prices  of  mobile 
broadband.  

This second round of the “Mobile Broadband prices” study1 aims at analysing and comparing what residential 
customers  actually  pay  for  mobile  broadband  in  the  EU28,  three  other  European  countries  (i.e.  Norway, 
Iceland  and  Turkey)  and  some  non-EU  countries  (i.e.  the  USA,  South  Korea  and  Japan).  It  also  allows  for 
objectively measuring the price evolutions in the different EU countries between 2015 and 2016. 

This  report  presents  the  results  of  the  analysis  of  mobile  broadband  offers  that  were  collected  in  February 
2016.  The  approach  used  is  that  of  the  2012  OECD  methodology  for  mobile  broadband2  which  aims  at 
calculating  the  total  price  (including  the  monthly  fee,  non-recurring  charges  and  usage  charges)  of  a  set  of 
offers  in  order  to  identify  the  least  expensive  offers  for  three  different  types  of  mobile  devices  (i.e.  laptop, 
tablet and handset) and five different levels of usage (i.e. monthly volume consumed), in other words for 15 
different combinations or “baskets”. In order to reflect the rapid evolutions on the mobile broadband market, 
in  this  2016  analysis  a  sixth  usage  profile  (with  double  the  data  allowance  of  the  highest  OECD  basket)  has 
been added for each type of device. 

Laptop use 

(data volumes) 

Tablet use 

(data volumes) 

Basket 1 

Basket 2 

Basket 3 

Basket 4 

Basket 5 

Basket 6 

500 MB 

1 GB 

2 GB 

5 GB 

10 GB 

20 GB 

250 MB 

500 MB 

1 GB 

2 GB 

5 GB 

10 GB 

Handset use (data 
volumes + 

voice/SMS basket) 

100 MB + 30 calls basket 

500 MB + 100 calls basket 

1 GB + 300 calls basket 

2 GB + 900 calls basket 

2 GB + 100 calls basket 

4 GB + 900 calls basket 

Table 1: Mobile broadband baskets under consideration in the study 

Per  operator,  only  offers  that  could  potentially  be  the  least  expensive  one  for  a  given  usage  profile  have 
been  collected.  After  a  calculation  of  their  average  total  monthly  cost  (on  a  36  months  basis),  the  least 
expensive  offer  per  operator,  and  subsequently  per  country,  was  identified  for  each  usage  profile.  These 
least expensive offer prices per country and per usage profile (subsequently called ‘price’) are used as the 
key indicator for all analyses. 

In view of the large number of usage profiles, distinguishing between good and bad performers is not always 
straightforward, as differences can occur between devices and usage volumes: 

1  The  first  mobile  broadband  prices  study,  based  on  February  2015  prices,  is  available  at  https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-
market/en/news/mobile-broadband-prices-february-2015 
2 Methodology for constructing wireless broadband price baskets, OECD (2012):  
http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DSTI/ICCP/CISP%282011%295/FINAL&docLanguage=E
n 

Mobile Broadband Prices – Data as of February 2016 

3 

 
 
 
                                                 
Figure 1: Clustering3  of countries based on prices for the least expensive offer available on handset (left) and laptop/tablet (right)4  
(expressed in EUR/PPP, VAT included, data for February 2016) 

3 Clustering is performed through the k-means clustering approach (see above) with 4 clusters. In the graph, all clusters are centered around the cluster mean, and the size of the clusters illustrates 
the number of observations belonging to the cluster. 
4 The least expensive offer available per basket is the lowest value of the least expensive laptop and least expensive tablet offer. 

Mobile Broadband Prices – Data as of February 2016 

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Within the handset baskets, Denmark, Italy, Latvia and the UK frequently perform very well, and unlike in 
2015,  they  are  accompanied  by  Austria and  Sweden.  On  the  other side  of  the  ranking,  Bulgaria,  Hungary 
and  Malta  are  expensive  for  all  user  profiles.  To  a  slightly  lesser  extent,  the  Czech  Republic,  Greece, 
Portugal and Slovakia also perform relatively poorly in comparison to the other EU countries. 

For laptop/tablet offers, which are presented above in a grouped way (as in many cases identical or rather 
comparable  offers  are  available  for  both  -  see  below),  results  are  somewhat  different.  Denmark,  Austria 
and Sweden again score very well, but other top rankers for these devices are Poland (especially for higher 
baskets)  and  even  more  so  Estonia,  which  for  all  user  profiles  takes  a  place  in  the  lowest  (i.e.  least 
expensive) cluster and in six out of seven cases has a top 3 place. In the high price range, Czech Republic, 
Slovakia and Portugal appear again, but this time they are accompanied by Cyprus and Germany and for the 
higher baskets, Spain (2GB and more) and Belgium (10GB and more).  

When expressing these monthly prices as a percentage of income, the dispersion between countries is still 
apparent. For instance, in Bulgaria and Hungary more than 7% of income is spent on mobile broadband on 
handsets of 1, 2 and 4 GB, whereas in Austria and Denmark this is less than 1.5%. Depending on the usage 
profile, the EU average is situated between 1.7 and 3.1% of income. For laptops and tablets, the EU average 
is a bit lower (0.5 to 2.5%), and especially Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus come out as bad performers. The 
position of the first two thus deteriorates if prices are expressed in terms of income. On the other side of 
the  ranking,  the  good  performance  of  Austria,  Denmark  and  Sweden  is  confirmed,  but  when  crossing 
results with income, they are accompanied by Italy. 

From  the  ‘clustering’  analysis,  some  further  observations  can  be  drawn,  that  have  given  rise  to  more 
detailed analyses: 

 

The clustering graphs show (both for handset and for laptop/tablet offers) a clear and continuous 
rise  in  EU  average  prices  for  higher  volumes,  thus  confirming  the  existence  of  a  positive  data 
volume-price  relationship.  Higher  usage  profiles  however  appear  to  give  more  value  for  money. 
Indeed, when expressing  prices in unitary terms as a ‘cost  per GB’, the latter at EU28 level in all 
cases drops between 20 and 45% between two adjacent usage profiles. This is similar to last year’s 
result, as then a drop between 30 and 50% was observed. Exceptions to the general rule arise most 
often when the basic data allowance included in the offer does not fit the basket usage profile (but 
no cheaper alternative exists at the operator or other operators of the same country) or because 
higher usage profiles on handsets also include higher volumes of voice and SMS; 

  Prices for handset offers at first sight seem much higher than those of laptop/tablet offers, but it 
should be kept in mind that these offers, next to a data allowance, also include voice minutes and 
SMS.  Moreover,  to  allow  for  meaningful  comparisons,  all  handset  offer  prices  also  include 
hardware  (smartphone):  a  basic  smartphone  (i.e.  Nokia  Lumia  532/535/550/635/640;  Huawei 
Y5/P8 Lite; Samsung Galaxy S4 mini; LG Spirit 4G/Leon 3G/G Stylo/G Flex 2) for Baskets 1 to 3 
and  an  advanced  smartphone  (i.e.  most  often  the  Samsung  Galaxy  S6)  for  Baskets  4  to  6.  As 
mentioned,  prices  for  laptop  and  tablet  offers  are  much  more  comparable.  First  of  all,  the 
equipment cost (e.g. USB stick, dongle or MiFi-modem) that in more than half of the countries is 
part of the laptop offer prices, is highest for the lowest baskets, but even then on average is only 
1.1 EUR per month. Secondly, when abstraction is made of this equipment cost, in between 17 and 
21 (depending on the usage profile) of the EU Member States prices for laptop and tablet offers of 
the same usage profiles are identical, most often implying that on the operators’ websites offers 
are proposed that can be used by choice either with tablet or laptop; 

Mobile Broadband Prices – Data as of February 2015 

4 

 
 
 
 
 
  While a basic smartphone represents on average around 3.2 to 3.3 EUR or 10 to 20% of the total 
monthly price, the advanced smartphone that is part of the  three highest handset baskets has a 
monthly cost of around 13.5 to 14.5 EUR or 25 to 35% of the total monthly price on average, in a 
handful  of  countries  even  surpassing  20  EUR.  Only  the  advanced  smartphone  therefore  truly 
impacts on the relative performance of some countries. This is especially the case in Lithuania and 
Poland: if in these countries the smartphone cost to be added to the monthly price would only be 
as high as the EU average, they would in all three baskets end up in the top 5 of least expensive 
countries (while in reality, they occupy positions between 11 and 16, depending on the basket).  

These overall observations run strongly parallel with what was observed during the first “Mobile Broadband 
Prices”  study of February 2015. When  comparing 2015 and 2016 prices per usage profile and  per device 
more in detail, it can be observed that EU28 average prices of mobile broadband on handsets have without 
an exception dropped in the past year. However, only for the 2GB - 1800 min -350 SMS usage profile can an 
impressive  decrease  of  14%  be  observed.  Laptop  and  tablet  based  offers  of  2  GB  and  more  have  also 
slightly  decreased,  but  offers  in  low  usage  profiles  have  become  slightly  more  expensive  since  last  year. 
Going down to the level of the individual countries, it appears that these increases are mostly caused by 
price increases in some of the countries that last year had relatively low prices, so that prices in the 512 MB 
and 1 GB laptop/tablet baskets appear to have grown somewhat closer between 2015 and 2016.  Also for 
low handset usage profiles can such a limited price convergence be observed, while for high usage profiles 
(on  all  devices),  no  clear  trend  for  more  expensive  countries  versus  less  expensive  countries  emerge. 
Noteworthy is however that in Finland, Malta and Sweden, prices have decreased since 2015 on all devices 
and for all usage profiles. 

When  crossing  the  results  of  the  mobile  broadband  prices  study  with  mobile  broadband  take-up  figures, 
last year’s observation that a certain amount of correlation appears to exist between prices and take-up, is 
further  confirmed.  Good  illustrations  of  this  are  e.g.  Denmark,  Estonia,  Finland  and  Sweden,  where  low 
prices  go  hand  in  hand  with  high  take-up  figures;  and  Greece,  Hungary,  Malta  and  Portugal,  where  high 
prices and low take-up can be observed. However, this trend is not ubiquitous: for instance,  in Latvia and 
Lithuania low prices can be observed, but at the same time mobile broadband penetration is relatively low 
in these countries.   

Finally,  EU  mobile  broadband  prices  score  relatively  well  compared  to  those  in  a  selection  of  other 
countries worldwide. In the handset category, the EU and the USA showcase prices that are situated close 
together,  and  take  turns  in  occupying  first  place,  whereas  for  laptop  and  tablet  offers,  the  EU  takes  first 
position  for  the  low-capacity  offers  (up  until  1GB),  but  loses  its  leading  place  to  South  Korea  for  higher 
capacity. This is because in South Korea no low allowance offers exist on the market, and (relatively more 
expensive)  offers  with  higher  data  allowances  are  thus  the  only  solution  to  fulfil  the  lower  basket 
requirements.  A  similar  effect  can  be  noticed  in  Japan  in  the  handset  category.  The  OECD  usage  profiles 
thus do not seem fully appropriate for some of these non-EU countries. Moreover, although baskets with 
higher  usage  profiles  have  been  added  during  the  2016  study,  this  does  not  solve  the  lack  of 
representativeness of the low usage profiles for several (EU and non-EU) countries. Results should thus be 
interpreted with caution. 

Mobile Broadband Prices – Data as of February 2015 

5 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
European Commission 

Mobile broadband prices  
Luxembourg, Office des publications de l'Union européenne 

2016 – 6 pages  

ISBN 978-92-79-59298-0 
doi:10.2759/502139 

Mobile Broadband Prices – Data as of February 2015 

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doi:10.2759/502139                              ISBN 978-92-79-59298-0