A study by Tefficient reveals some big disparities across Europe’s mobile users from ARPU to revenue per gigabyte
A recent report by consultants Tefficient, commissioned by the Greek regulator the Hellenic Telecommunications & Post Commission (EETT) has highlighted some fascinating insights into mobile services value for money spanning twelve EU and Euro countries: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain.
Tefficient compared key mobile industry metrics, emphasising mobile revenues and data usage, across twelve Eurozone markets within the EU from 2017 to 2023. The analysis derives its insights from actual usage patterns and revenues rather than focussing on the market’s best offerings or theoretical service baskets.
While the primary focus of the benchmark was on Greece, the report’s insights provides perspectives for the telecommunications industry in the remaining eleven countries. Greece has three MNOs, Cosmote, Vodafone, and Nova, but since Vodafone and Nova share mobile network, Greece just has two mobile networks. Within the peer group, only Belgium is in a similar position.
There is no active mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in Greece. In some of the peer group markets – Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain – MVNOs hold a 10% or higher market share of mobile subscriptions which suggest that competition stretches well beyond the facilities-based MNOs.
Taking into consideration a range of factors including what statistics were available from each country’s regulator right through to comparative price levels in each country [to show purchasing parity], Ireland topped the ARPU levels at €22.7 but this aligned with it having the highest comparative price level as well. Surprisingly, Croatia featured the second highest ARPU at €17.4 EUR in 1H 2023, despite having the lowest comparative price level.
The ARPU of Greece was 12.2 EUR in 1H 2023 which is lower than the median. The ARPU of Greece was €12.2 in 1H 2023 which is lower than the median while competition in Italy has led to a 5% decline in ARPU. Greece is among the 5 countries (of 11) that had a positive 2017-2022 CAGR in its ARPU. Lithuania has had the best ARPU development at 6%.
Adding in M2M
Croatia topped the charts with €16.4 in 1H 2023 despite its comparative price levels. Ireland had high ARPU levels too, but its fast growth in M2M subscriptions means that the Irish ARPU has fallen quickly. Also Austria has experienced fast growth in its M2M subscriptions base and if including all M2M subscriptions, Austria’s ARPU was the second lowest in 1H 2023, just €7.9. Tefficient pointed out Austria’s numbers were skewed by international SIMs. So with M2M added in, of the twelve countries examined, only two – Lithuania and Greece – had growth in ARPU during 2017-2022.
Mobile data usage per subscription
Tefficient found that Austria had the highest mobile data usage among the peer group. In the first half of 2023, it was 27.1GB per non-M2M subscription per month. Lithuania had the second highest usage, 23.3GB per month in 1H 2023, followed by Croatia with 21.8GB. The usage level of Greece is much lower, 7.3GB per month in the first half of 2023. Until 2020, Greece had the lowest usage among the peer group, but has since overtaken Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. All countries have experienced strong growth in the mobile data usage during 2017-2022, but Greece had the fastest growth at 62% – but from a small base.
Data-only drives usage
According to the report, one driver for high average mobile data usage is data-only (or mbb) subscriptions. These SIMs are typically sitting in things like routers, mobile hotspots, PCs or tablets. Austria’s average data-only subscription consumed 115GB per month in the first half of 2023. The overall usage per any subscription was 27.1GB. Lithuania and Ireland also have high average usage per data-only subscription.
Revenue per gigabyte is falling though
Bigger data allowances with stagnant ARPU has meant that revenue per gigabyte has fallen in European countries in the study. The revenue per GB is the highest in Belgium, €3.1 in 2022. Germany had the second highest revenue per GB, €2.8 in 2022. The Netherlands stood at €2.2 in 1H 2023 whereas Greece is fourth-ranked with €1.7 in 1H 2023. In 2019, Greece had the highest revenue per GB, but Greece has fallen below Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands since. At the other end of the spectrum, Tefficient found Lithuania with just €0.4 per GB in 1H 2023.
The full report which includes voice finding can be found here.