The Czech mobile data market is dominated by mobile operators and a number of market failures. He says so analysis of the relevant market No. 3 in the sense of OOP / 1 / 05.2021–5 – wholesale market for access to mobile services, which today published by the Czech Telecommunication Office (ČTÚ).
“The wholesale price of data for 1 transferred MB in the period 2015-2020 was always higher or at least equal to the retail price. In 2020, the average retail price of 1 MB of transferred data reached the level of approximately CZK 0.05 excluding VAT and the average wholesale price reached the level of CZK 0.09 excluding VAT. The wholesale price was therefore almost double the retail price. This means that virtual operators cannot profitably replicate and offer their customers virtually none of the retail tariffs including the volume of data over 2 GB offered by network operators, “argues the CTU, among others.
As a remedy, it proposes to three network operators (O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone) “an obligation to allow virtual operators access to wholesale mobile services, at a price that will allow them to replicate the offers of mobile network operators and compete with them in the market.”
The Authority has now submitted an analysis to the public consultation, in which all interested players can comment on it. After the consultation, the CTU must submit the analysis to the European Commission.
SUPPLEMENT 12:25 – Vodafone was the first major operator to comment on the analysis, disagreeing with its conclusions.
“The CTO does not respect the decision of the European Commission from July 2019, when the Commission refused the CTO’s proposal to regulate the mobile market. In the analysis, the CTU again ignores the main problem on the Czech market, namely the sharing of mobile networks between O2 / CETIN and T-Mobile, which the European Commission already described in August 2019 as anti-competitive, “says the operator.
“The uncertainty that the CTU brings to the market poses a risk to future investments. At the same time, last year and this year showed how much capacity and a resilient telecommunications infrastructure is needed. Vodafone is now investing heavily in coverage, with the state-of-the-art 5G signal currently covering 35% of the population, ”he adds.
“The published analysis of the mobile market does not take into account new services. We last improved the offer in June this year, the customer can get an unlimited amount of data, calls and SMS for as little as 599 crowns a month. With fixed internet from Vodafone, tariffs will be even cheaper, so the tariff with unlimited data fell below 500 crowns. This offer has no competition with us and will withstand international comparisons, ”adds Vodafone.
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