Operators have seen a commensurate increase in their Broadband subscriber base, for example British incumbent BT saw the number of its Wholesale ADSL end users more than doubling from 2.215 million in 2004 to 4.932 million in 2005. Telecom Italia had 5.943 million Broadband access lines (including those as part of the European Broadband Project) in September 2005, as opposed to 3.655 million in September 2004, while Belgian incumbent Belgacom’s ADSL access channels (901,100) constitute nearly one fifth of a total of 5.2 million fixed connections (as at June 2005). Moreover, France Telecom currently (December 2005) has 9.391 million ADSL and unbundled registered lines in France and a further 2.944 million ADSL registered lines in other European markets (Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and UK), whilst Spanish incumbent Telefonica currently (September 2005) counts 5.285 million ADSL subscribers, up from 3.370 million in 2004.
The graph reveals (see below for a detailed outline of price changes by the 5 operators) that subscribers in all surveyed markets receive either higher bandwidth for the same price or the same monthly rental (BT, Italy, and Belgium) or pay less for the same bandwidth than a year ago (France, Spain).
Graph 1 – Price comparison of monthly rental charges of selected ADSL price plans available from BT/UK, France Telecom/France, Telefonica/Spain, Telecom Italia/Italy, and Belgacom/Belgium between January 2005 – January 2006
With ADSL speeds increasing and monthly rentals dropping it is currently not uncommon to encounter average downstream speeds offered by European operators that range between 2 – 8 Mbit/s, which was hardly the case a few months ago. On the other hand, nowadays more sophisticated Broadband delivery platforms, such as Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH), enable consumers to benefit from speeds as high as 100 Mbit/s, which, however, are offered at a respective price. Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI offers its ‘DION’ Broadband Internet service through optical fibre, which is compatible with Japanese incumbent NTT DoCoMo’s ‘B FLET’S’ Broadband infrastructure and enables subscribers to benefit from Broadband Internet access at 100 Mbit/s. The average monthly cost of the service is JPY 1,970 (VAT excl.) -or Euro 14.25- while NTT also charges a monthly fee, which depending on the subscribed plan can go up to JPY 10,100 (VAT excl.), or Euro 73.03. Even though FTTH has not yet taken off in Europe due to its rather high cost of domestic supply, the KDDI example is a clear indication of the options that Broadband consumers are bound to be faced with in the future.
Usage patterns of the average Broadband consumer currently require high bandwidth, as convergence brings together fixed, mobile, TV, computing, and Internet technologies. Music and movie downloading, online interactive games playing, and, more recently, TV delivered over Broadband Internet connections (Internet Protocol TV or IPTV) are the big lure for the Broadband market. British cable operator Telewest recently announced the launch of its latest ‘triple play’ offer, which includes 2 Mbit/s Broadband Internet in conjunction with ‘Talk Weekends’ fixed telephone and more than 40 digital TV channels (offer also includes the Teleport service that allows the customer to pause, rewind and fast forward movies and programmes) for GBP 33.99 (VAT incl.) per month. With a number of Broadband offerings currently pointing towards a higher bandwidth capacity and a centralised operation system that manages a number of services delivered through Broadband, it is really up to the consumers to decide how much they would be willing to pay, in order to benefit from the vast array of Broadband services available.
For further information on Retail ADSL prices in over 100 countries worldwide, please contact Tarifica on +44 207 692 5292
About Broadband:
Broadband is the technological vehicle that permits permanent, usually un-metered, high-speed access to the Internet via DSL, cable or other delivery platforms (Satellite, FTTH, Fi-Wi, and 3G)
Detailed information on ADSL price changes over the last 12-months
Tarifica’s findings reveal that In the UK, BT’s ‘BT Broadband Basic’ plan attracted a monthly charge of Euro 22.30 (VAT excl.) providing a downstream speed of up to 512 kbit/s with an inclusive monthly allowance of 1 GB in January 2005, while today the same plan (now renamed to ‘BT Option 1’) offers double the inclusive allowance (2 GB) with quadruple downstream speed (up to 2 Mbit/s) for the same rental charge. It is worth noting at this point that BT’s Broadband trial pricing in 1999 for the residential service was Euro 43.41 per month (or GBP 30.00 per month) [3].
Similar trends may also be identified in the other European markets that were researched. The graph above compares the current monthly rental charges of selected ADSL packages available from the incumbent operators in France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium with the ones from a year earlier (January 2005). A close look at the graph may reveal two prevailing trends: operators have either dropped the monthly charges of the ADSL plans that were researched, while keeping the downstream ADSL speed unchanged, as in the case of France Telecom and Telefonica (Spain), or they have kept the same monthly rental fee whilst increasing the downstream speed available on the specific price plan, as in the case of BT, Telecom Italia and Belgacom (France Telecom has also increased the upstream speed of its ‘Internet Max’ plan from 256 kbit/s to 800 kbit/s, and Belgacom increased the upstream speed of its ‘ADSL Go’ plan from 192 kbit/s to 256 kbit/s, while BT also doubled the inclusive monthly traffic of its ‘BT Option 1’ from 1 GB to 2 GB).
Notes to Graph 1:
1. ADSL speeds for the above price plans are as follows:
>BT – ‘BT Broadband Basic’ (January 2005) offered a downstream speed of up to 512 kbit/s and 1 GB inclusive allowance per month, while ‘BT Option 1’ currently offers a downstream speed of up to 2 Mbit/s and 2 GB inclusive allowance per month
>France Telecom – ‘Internet Max’ and ‘eXtense DebitMax’ (January 2005) offer both a downstream speed of 8 Mbit/s, with an upstream speed of 800 kbit/s (‘Internet Max’) and 256 kbit/s (eXtense DebitMax’)
>Telefonica – ‘Linea ADSL 2 Mbit/s’ (both in its current and January 2005 versions) offers a downstream speed of 2 Mbit/s, with an upstream speed of 300 kbit/s
> Telecom Italia – ‘Alice 4 Mega’ offers a speed of 4 Mbit/s, while ‘Alice Mega’ (January 2005) offered a downstream speed of 1200 kbit/s, with an upstream speed of 256 kbit/s (applying to both)
> Telecom Italia – ‘Alice 4 Mega’ offers a speed of 4 Mbit/s, while ‘Alice Mega’ (January 2005) offered a downstream speed of 1,200 kbit/s, with an upstream speed of 256 kbit/s (applying to both)
> Belgacom – ‘ADSL Go’ currently offers a downstream speed of 4 Mbit/s, while the January 2005 version offered a speed of 3.3 Mbit/s. The upstream speed used to be 192 kbit/s (January 2005), while now it is 256 kbit/s
2. The above price comparison refers to the monthly rental fees charged by the operators, and excludes ADSL connection or line activation charges, which vary considerably amongst the researched countries.
3. The above prices are expressed in Euro and do not include VAT.
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About Tarifica:
Located in London, Tarifica is a leading brand of Access Intelligence LLC, headquartered in Rockville, Md, USA. Established in 1976, Tarifica was the first consultancy to track telecommunications tariffs, and offers a unique repertoire of tariff related products covering fixed and mobile services globally.
Access Intelligence (www.accessintel.com) is a b-to-b media and information company headquartered in Rockville, MD, serving the telecommunications, chemical, defence, satellite, aviation, cable, media and public relations markets. The Telecommunications Advisory Group includes: TelecomWeb, the telecom industry destination for comprehensive global business intelligence, which recently launched a daily news service; market intelligence provider InfoTech; tariff consultancy Tarifica; subscription news services such as Inside Digital TV and Wireless Business Forecast; and the Web-based product database TelecomTactics.
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Contacts:
Margrit Sessions, Group Publisher – Tel: +44 207 692 5292, Email: msessions@tarifica.com
