Average monthly bill per SIM is about €16 ⋆

LES SERVICES de communications électroniques en France e trimestre janvier

Average monthly bill per SIM is about €16

Revenues for French telecoms operators declined across the board in the third quarter, recording year-on-year drops in mobile, fixed and added-value services in France according to the latest quarterly statistics released by Arcep. Average monthly bill france

Mobile service revenues decreased by 1.1 percent to EUR 3.55 billion, after growing for three consecutive quarters, while fixed service revenues dropped to EUR 4.28 billion (-1.1%).

The consumption of mobile services by customers of French mobile operators abroad (Roaming –out) is booming, thanks in particular to the drop in international roaming under the European Commission roaming regulation enabling customers to benefit from services as of 15 June 2017 in the European Union at the same rates as those applied in their countries (see notes).

All mobile services are concerned: the volume of minutes of voice calls increased by 42.6% over one year against + 20% to + 30% previously, the number of SMS issued 32.9%; finally, consumption is quadrupled compared to the third quarter of 2016.
In contrast to the surge in traffic, income directly attributable to all of this consumption (181 million euros excluding VAT in the third quarter of 2017) is down 25.5% year-on-year.

Note: Roaming out is calls made abroad by operators’ customers’ French mobile. In income, only billed services are recorded, specifically, or beyond the fixed price, to the operator’s customers for roaming whatever the service (incoming and outgoing voice communications, messaging services,
Internet). Since 15 June 2017, operators have been obliged to apply national tariffs to their clients traveling within the European Union for calls made or received via mobile phone.

Average monthly consumption per mobile SIM card (excluding M2M)

Since the beginning of 2017, the average monthly bill per card has been at a level of 16 euros excluding taxes (15.9 euros excluding taxes in the third quarter of 2017). The amount of this average bill has virtually halved in ten years, with a marked decline during the period 2011-2013 (-2 to -3.5 euros excluding taxes in annual rate).

This trend slowed down thanks to a slower decline in mobile service prices and an increased number of plans marketed, whose average bill is three times higher than that of a prepaid card (17,6 € HT against 5,5 € HT per month). Over the last two years, the decline in the average bill has been less than one euro on an annual basis (-60 cents in the third quarter of 2017).

Mobile operators’ roaming-in traffic Average monthly bill france

Consumption of customers of foreign operators in France is increasing rapidly, favored in particular, international roaming tariff cuts and alignment since June 15 2017 on national pricing (see notes below). The annual rate of volume growth minutes of roaming in voice communications is thus almost twice as high as on
the previous five quarters (+ 45% versus + 20% to + 30%). The consumption of data is progressing even more rapidly, that of the third quarter of 2017 has almost been quadruple compared to the third quarter of 2016 (+ 270%). SMS consumption customers of foreign operators, which contracted since the end of 2015, is also up sharply in the third quarter of 2017 (+ 23.5% year-on-year).