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Report / Study | Публикация

Study on intra-EU calls

Today the European Commission has published a study on actual consumer practices and operator offers for intra-EU phone calls.

The results of the study found that across the sample countries operators offer a variety of tariffs for intra-EU phone calls. The tariffs for intra-EU calls vary considerably depending on the country destination. In general, intra-EU calls are three times more expensive than domestic calls. Based on the analysis of operator tariffs, the standard domestic tariff for a three-minute fixed call is on average EUR 0.21 (excluding VAT), compared to the average standard intra-EU tariff of EUR 0.76 (excluding VAT), which is 3.6 times more expensive. On average the standard tariff for a three-minute mobile domestic call in the EU is EUR 0.43 (excluding VAT) whilst for calls terminating in another Member State the tariff is EUR 1.53 (excluding VAT), more than 3.55 times more expensive. Finally, on average, the standard tariff for 50 SMS in the EU is EUR 4.624 (excluding VAT), while the cost for sending 50 SMS to another Member State rises to EUR 10.528 (excluding VAT). The SMS standard tariff is therefore over 2.27 times more expensive.

The study was analysing consumer practices and operators' offers for domestic and intra-EU fixed and mobile voice and messaging services across 15 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden). The study analysed the price of domestic and intra-EU fixed and mobile calls, as well as the price for sending 50 text messages (SMS) and multimedia messages (MMS). It provides data on tariffs offered by operators in August 2017. The study also collected evidence on trends in the use of these services, both in terms of traffic and revenues, in the period from 2012 to 2015.