According to a study by the industry association Bitkom, tariffs for occasional and “normal users” who only need a maximum of 1 GByte or 3 GByte data volume per month are comparatively cheap. Germany took fourth place in each of these categories in an international comparison.

In an online press conference, Bitkom presented the results of a study on the German mobile communications market. In it, the prices of German mobile phone providers were compared with those in nine European countries as well as the USA and Japan.

Zero rating makes comparability difficult For contracts with 5, 10, 20 as 40 GByte of maximum data volume, Germany landed in the middle of the field, twice in ranks 6 and 7 each time Germany are hardly widespread. Contracts with a high data volume also often contained additional services, such as the criticized zero-rating offers. This does not exist in other countries, which made comparability difficult.

Another special feature of the German market is the strong competition in the entry-level segment, which is caused by a large number of providers without their own Network emerges. Around 20 percent of the mobile phone tariffs would exist with these providers, according to Bitkom more than in any other country Europe. Users of these cheap contracts are also very willing to switch.

Poland and Italy were the cheapest compared the tariffs in Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, the USA and the United Kingdom. Overall, mobile phone contracts were cheapest in Poland and Italy, with the countries taking the first two places in five out of six comparison groups. In comparison, the USA and Switzerland were most frequently in the lower ranks.

According to Bitkom, the assumption that German mobile phone users would have to pay more than users abroad is not generally correct. According to Bitkom President Achim Berg, this prejudice stems from the time of high roaming charges. In addition, the indication of chargeable numbers that calls from the cell phone network are more expensive would also contribute to this assessment.

For the study, cell phone tariffs were compared that were offered in August and September and matched the six user profiles created. The costs were calculated over a contract period of 24 months. According to Bitkom, the eleven largest providers in Germany were taken into account. On average in Germany per SIM card 150 minutes are called per month and around 2.5 GB of data are used.

Ranking according to the cheapest tariff per profile Placement 1 GByte / 0 minutes included / 20 MBit / s download 3 GByte / 150 minutes included / 20 Mbit / s download 5 GByte / 0 minutes included / 20 Mbit / s download GByte / 0 minutes included / 200 Mbit / s download 20 GByte / 250 Minutes included / 20 MBit / s download 40 GByte / 250 Minutes included / 200 Mbit / s download 1 Poland Poland Poland Poland Poland Italy 2 Italy Italy Spain Italy Italy Poland 3 Spain United Kingdom Italy France Spain France 4 Germany Germany United Kingdom Sweden France Sweden 5 Finland Sweden France Netherlands United K Kingdom Netherlands 6 United Kingdom Spain Germany United Kingdom Sweden Germany 7 Netherlands Netherlands Netherlands Germany Germany Japan 8th Sweden France Sweden Finland Netherlands United Kingdom 9 USA Finland Japan Japan Finland Finland 10 France Switzerland Finland Switzerland Japan Spain 11 Japan USA USA UNITED STATES UNITED STATES Switzerland 12 Switzerland Japan Switzerland Spain Switzerland UNITED STATES Source: Bitkom (cbo)