22 percent above the EU average - That's why we pay so much for our mobile phone tariffs in Germany
German mobile phone tariffs are more expensive than the EU average. There are several reasons for this.
Mobile phone contracts are more expensive in Germany than in many other European countries. According to a Verivox analysis, prices here are 22 percent above the EU average.
A study by the British company Cable.co.uk shows that mobile data volume in Germany costs an average of two euros per gigabyte . In Italy it is only 0.08 euros. According to Verivox, there are two main reasons for the high prices: a lack of competition and expensive licensing costs from the past . "Markets with four or more network operators regularly have more dynamic competition, to the benefit of consumers," says Jörg Schamberg, telecommunications expert at Verivox.
The German market is not very dynamic, particularly due to the merger of E-Plus and O2. "Even today, the three top dogs Telekom, Vodafone and O2 still dictate the prices as wholesale providers," says Schamberg. Smaller providers have to buy bandwidth and data under specified conditions. The Federal Network Agency has not yet taken any decisive measures to strengthen competition. The agency has allowed network operators to continue using their licenses until 2030 without requiring them to hand over network capacity to smaller competitors.
Verivox recommends that consumers book tariffs according to their needs and use an online tariff advisor . "This often means that the monthly fee can be halved - with a slight reduction in speed," says Schamberg.
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