A new study, “Mobile Broadband Prices in Europe 2018”, conducted by empirica for the European Commission provides comprehensive data on 2018 retail prices of mobile broadband offers in the EU28, Iceland, Norway, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, and the USA.

The mobile broadband market trends are essential to guiding an evidence-based approach to policy in the area of electronic communications. For this reason, the monitoring of mobile broadband prices is among the activities pursued by the European Commission in the context of the Digital Single Market strategy.

The “Mobile Broadband Prices in Europe 2018” analysis focused on the offers of the two or three largest Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in each of the respective countries, employing methods devised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in order to maximise the study’s comparability. The approach considers a defined set of mobile broadband pricing baskets, following OECD methodology. Price normalisation procedures have been applied to arrive at comparable prices despite complex and varying tariffs. Data collection took place in February 2018 and included offers advertised and purchasable on the websites of the MNOs selected for analysis.

The final report and the full results of the analysis will be published by the European Commission early 2019. The study’s key findings will also account for price trends, comparing results of the 2018 report with those from the previous year.

The study has been carried out for the European Commission DG Communications Networks, Content & Technology, by empirica in cooperation with TÜV Rheinland Consulting.