Good news for the general public: the prices displayed by mobile plans in France have fallen again in 2021. At least this is what the latest edition of the monthly barometer produced by Ariase reports, which also highlights the race for prices engaged by operators in the mobile market, arguing that “a few days before winter sales, mobile operators are maintaining a very aggressive pricing approach with prices down 20% over one year”.
“In January 2022 the average price of a mobile plan of more than 10 GB was established at 16 euros against 20 euros a year earlier, that is to say 20% of annual decrease. Although the tariffs are up 4% on a month, the very aggressive pricing policy of the mobile telephony market is continuing, ”notes the institute.
In detail, the monthly cost smoothed over 24 months of a mobile plan taken out with Sosh or Bouygues Telecom including unlimited calls and more than 10 GB of data amounted to 10.41 euros on January 7, against 10.42 euros. at the low-cost operator of SFR, Red. Broken prices compared to the 15.41 euros charged at Free and the 22.91 euros and 22.96 euros respectively required by Orange and SFR.
A contained rise
“In the internet box segment, prices recorded a contained increase of 2.3% compared to January 2021 with a monthly average of € 27.72”, also indicates Ariase. Here again, Sosh and Bouygues Telecom are proving to be the cheapest operators, with average two-year rates for an entry-level fiber subscription amounting to 24.99 euros.
The operator Red by SFR is not left out, since an entry-level fiber subscription taken out with the low-cost operator of the Carré Rouge brand amounts to 25.58 euros on average. Follows Free, with an average price of 25.58 euros, then SFR (29.04 euros) and finally Orange (34.16 euros). Note that the packages included by these three operators include a TV decoder, which is not included in the packages taken into account by Ariase for Red by SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Sosh.
“Orange, Sosh and RED keep prices identical to last year but, over the same period, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free increase the price of their entry-level offer by 1 euro,” notes the institute, however.
Soon more greedy operators?
However, the current trend of erosion of subscription prices could be reversed soon. In any case, this is the implicit threat agitated by the operators who are members of the French Telecoms Federation, for whom the high taxation applied to them could push them to increase the prices of their subscriptions to rebuild margins damaged by a increase in investments intended to deploy fiber networks and 5G in the region.
Despite record investments – with 11.5 billion euros invested in 2020 (3.2 billion in mobile, 8.3 billion in fixed) – the operators regretted in fact at the end of December to be subject to excessive taxation according to them. And recall that, “although representing 47% of the total revenues of the digital economy, telecom operators pay 81% of taxes in the sector”.
The threat agitated by the French operators could move the authorities. The prices of the services marketed by the operators “remain among the lowest of the large Western countries”, underline in fact the members of the French Federation of the telecoms, which note that these “represent less than 2% of the expenditure of the households, against 2.6% 10 years ago, and are decreasing unlike all the other regulated sectors, in which prices are increasing ”.