OECD Mobile Broadband Price Benchmarking Q1 2021 update: Mobile Broadband price evolution Pre, during and post pandemic.
The Q1 2021 update of the OECD Mobile Broadband Price Benchmarking service is now available for download and includes over 1,570 mobile broadband tariff plans from 110 providers across 37 OECD countries. VAT rates revert to pre-pandemic rates in both Germany and Ireland, 19% and 23% respectively.
The graphs below show the cheapest tariff for the 1GB per month basket of data, across the 37 OECD countries for Dec 2019, Sep 2020 and March 2021, Pre, During and Post the Covid-19 pandemic.
Many countries showed a drop on prices during the pick of the pandemic with a notable increase thereafter, even more than before Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. Among those countries are Australia, Czech Rep, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Sweden. Czech Rep showed the most notable decrease with a 47% fall during 2020 and an equally notable 87% increase in price for 2021.
In contrast to this, there was an increase during 2020 but a fall in prices for the first quarter of 2021 observed in Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, and Lithuania. The highest peak was observed in Lithuania which had a 56% increase in 2020 and a 35% decrease for 2021.
When we consider a “normal” movement of tariffs, where prices increase year by year, we found that Austria Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland, followed this path.
Although, Poland showed a big increased between 2020 and 2021 (123%) its price in 2021 is the second cheapest for this basket at just 5.51 USD/PPP, increasing from 2.46 USD/PPP in 2020.
However, the highest increase was found in Spain, with an increase of 322% where the cheapest offer from Orange Spain for the business sector, increased from 13.98 USD/PPP to 58.95 USD/PPP. The main reason for this increment is that until 2020, Orange lowest data offer was 3GB while for 2021 the lower data plan offered starts from 90Gb per month.
Poland has been the cheapest country for this basket for the past three years, while Colombia is still the most expensive.
Source: OECD Mobile Broadband Price Benchmarking, December 2019, Sep 2020 & March 2021, Teligen
We have observed a few providers moving away from pure mobile broadband tariffs, and instead offering mobile data within a mobile voice tariff. Both Movistar and Tigo in Colombia, Cellcom in Israel, Movistar and Telcel in Mexico and finally Movistar and Vodafone in Spain no longer offer mobile broadband-only pricing. We anticipate seeing more providers following this trend in the future.
Since the March 2018 update, the OECD Mobile Broadband Price Benchmarking Service has included the new OECD 2017 baskets, and these are shown in the table below. There is now no distinction between device types, so all baskets can be used with any device. In addition, the usage tiers have been expanded to include a 20GB and a 50GB basket. Furthermore, two short-term usage baskets have been included.
The 2010 baskets are still available within the system.
Historical pricing for the OECD countries over several years is also available. Please contact us for more details.
Strategy Analytics additionally produces benchmarking services for fixed voice, mobile voice & data and fixed broadband, as well as bundled telecoms services and Pay TV.
If you have any difficulty using any of the functions within OECD Mobile Broadband Price Benchmarking, or would like more information on how to get the most out of the system, please contact either:
Catherine Arteaga, Tariff Analyst, Teligen.