Latvia, France, Estonia and Bulgaria have the most competitive triple play (fixed broadband, fixed voice and TV) offers across the 36 countries tracked in Teligen’s latest Bundle Benchmarking system, offering prices below $30 at purchasing power parity. On the other hand, the US, Norway, New Zealand and Canada are the countries where basic triple play offers are the most expensive, reaching above $90. The average of lowest priced basic triple plays is just below $55.
The vast price discrepancies between countries are not limited to basic triple plays but can be found in most types of telecom services bundles. For example the cheapest basic requirements Broadband + TV bundles range from just above $18.50 up to just over $90 while the cheapest basic requirements Broadband + Fixed Voice bundles range from just under $19.50 up to over $100.
The price differences can partially be explained by the fact that not all bundles are equal and that some operators will offer extra services (over the minimum services required by the basket), or will offer significantly above the minimum requirement defined. For example, the cheapest offer in Spain for a triple play basic basket is from Movistar, and includes mobile voice with 2GB of mobile data, in additional to the three fixed services required. The cheapest triple play service in France is from Bouygues Telecom and offers fixed broadband speed of 1Gbps, unlimited calls on fixed line and 170 TV channels, which is significantly above the set requirements of a minimum of 2Mpbs for the fixed broadband, line rental for fixed voice and 5 channels for the TV element. The offer from Bouygues is particularly cheap as the company has been running aggressive price promotions on its bundle services, probably to steal market share from its competitors Orange, SFR and Free.
Despite this particularly aggressive promotion France remains a very competitive market for triple plays with an average price just above $35 based on the cheapest offers from the 4 companies listed above. On the other end of the spectrum, the average price in the USA for the same basic requirements is just short of $120.
Bundling is an increasingly popular marketing tool for operators who wish to increase their customer penetration, reduce churn rate and create trading up opportunities with existing clients. It is also the logical reflection of industry consolidation between telecom and pay TV companies. As the market penetration of bundles and their complexity keeps evolving in many developing countries, Teligen will be monitoring the prices of all types of bundles marketed by operators across 36 countries starting from this edition based on prices captured in July/August 2017. The next update is scheduled for January 2018.