Cheap mobile data plan - which operator offer the most? ⋆

Cheap mobile data plan – which operator offer the most?

The mobile battleground is one currently fought around big data offers and a look at plans from some of the main providers in Europe and beyond shows just how competitive things are. cheap mobile data plan

The table below shows the cheapest offers from main providers in selected countries for a user that needs 20 GB of data per month, and who makes 50 calls (around 160 mins) and 20 SMSs. Data has been taken from the OECD Mobile Voice and Data Price Benchmarking service produced by the Teligen competitive pricing analysis division of Strategy Analytics.

Source: OECD Mobile Voice and Data Price Benchmarking

Iliad in Italy has the cheapest offer – with an unlimited minutes and SMSs, plus 40GB/month for a very low €6.99/month. Free France, which is also part of the Iliad group, also features with 150GB offer for €19.99.

Translating the cost per month and the included data into an effective price per GB (minutes and SMSs are typically unlimited) shows an unbelievably low rate of between €0.08 per GB from Partner in Israel, to €1.25 per GB from Vodafone, Italy. The Partner plan, Basic 5G, provides 150 GB of data on a 5G SIM-only tariff, and also comes with 5000 minutes and 5000 SMSs (so, not unlimited but certainly very generous) and costs 49.90 New Shekels per month, equivalent to a very modest €12.54 per months.

Pushing mega-cheap offers does not guarantee market share gains, particularly as once cheap plans with large allowances are out in the market, competitors often respond in kind. A good example of such a response is Telecom Italia which recently targeted existing customers with a €4.99/month add-on to take the customer allowances to unlimited. (Giga Illimati White).

The graph below shows changes in market shares by provider over 4 quarters from end 2019 for the analysed providers. The big increase in q32020 for Cellcom Israel was as a result of its acquisition of Golan Telecom, making it the largest mobile operator in Israel, and by some considerable way. Elsewhere, the biggest shifts have been in Italy, with Iliad making some market share gains, mainly at the expense of both Vodafone Italy and Wind Tre.