The price development for telecommunications and Internet in Sweden - the first half of the year 2007 - PTSER-2007:29

22/01/2008

Private use of mobile Internet almost tripled in Sweden in the first half of the year 2007, because of new technologies that enable rapid data transmission on the latest generation cellular networks. Suddenly mobile broadband became a viable alternative for regular PC users, especially as prices were the same as those for regular broadband. In the same period, the number of private subscriptions for mobile broadband increased from 26 000 to 71 000.

Mobile network operators also offered competitive prices for phone calls, so much that the average user by June 2007 saved 38 kronor a month by replacing the fixed telephone by the mobile, granted that the right phone account was selected.

However, prices for phone and Internet services stood basically still in the first half of the year 2007. As for mobile broadband, what happened was that there was a leap in technology and a new product on the market rather than a drop in prices.

Yet prices fell on two markets in this period. The smallest monthly fee for 2 Mbps broadband offered by one of the five largest broadband Internet providers in Sweden was 199 kronor on 30th June 2007, down 13 percent from the turn of the year, and the price for Voice over IP over Internet fell eleven percent.

A negative trend was that several mobile network operators increased their billing increment to 60 seconds on their prepaid accounts, i.e. rounding up the call duration to the next whole minute, and that several fixed line operators raised their connection charge for phone calls. Telia Sonera raised its connection charge for all contract-based phones from 0.45 to 0.69 kronor in the beginning of 2007.