(Finance) – The market of mobile phone is rich in operators And tariffs on which to bet to activate a SIM with minutes, SMS and Giga at a good price. To direct the choices of users, in many cases, there is a real one psychological threshold: The monthly fee less than 10 euros. The new survey by the SOStariffe.it and Segugio.it Observatory analyzed the current state of the mobile telephony market to highlight the differences between offers for less than 10 euros and offers with a “double-digit” fee, considering both the composition of the monthly bundle (minutes, SMS and Giga) and the accessory services included. The offers for less than 10 euros have 110 GB for 7.61 euros per month. Only in 7% of cases it is possible to access 5G.
In choosing one new mobile phone offer, one of the main elements to consider is the monthly fee. The market is increasingly divided into two macro-groups of offers. On the one hand there are the rates of less than 10 euros per month which represent the solution chosen by most users. On the other hand, however, we find rates with a “double-digit” fee and, therefore, equal to or greater than 10 euros per month. These offers have a richer bundle and guarantee a series of additional benefits.
There new investigation of theSOStariffe.it Observatory And Hound.it puts into consideration the current state of the telephony market, analyzing the differences between offers for less than 10 euros per month and offers with fees equal to or higher than this psychological threshold. The study examined the composition of the average bundle of these two types of tariffs to then verify which additional services characterize the offers with fees exceeding 10 euros per month.
The data collected by the Observatory confirm that, on average, the mobile phone tariffs available in May 2023 present a bundles consisting of 2,860 minutes, 1,872 text messages and 129 GB with a periodic cost of €10.14 per month. Compared to the Observatory’s survey of last January, there is an increase in the Giga included (they were 114 GB in January) as well as an increase in the average fee (which in January was equal to 9.74 euros per month).
By subdividing the offered in two macro-groupsone composed of offers with canon from less than 10 euros per month and one of the offers with a fee equal to or higher than this threshold, it is possible to obtain an even more detailed picture of the current market. The threshold of 10 euros per month continues to represent a real barrier which, for many consumers, differentiates affordable rates from overpriced ones.
The offers for less than 10 euros per month, in addition to presenting a much lower fee (7.61 euros against 16.64 euros), guarantee less Giga per month (110 GB against 134 GB) compared to tariffs with a “double-digit” fee . Choosing a rate of less than 10 euros, therefore, allows you to spend, on average, 9.03 euros less each month, giving up “only” 24 GB. The differences in terms of minutes And SMS included are negligible since, for both groups, there is the possibility of accessing unlimited tariff plans for both calls and messages. The differences between the two macro-groups of offers and the comparison with the market average are shown in the table below.
Among the rates with less than 10 euros per month of rent, for example, only 7% of the total includes the 5G. The new generation mobile network, on the other hand, is already included in 52% of offers with a fee of 10 euros or more. To access 5G while remaining below 10 euros of monthly expenditure, therefore, the options are still few. This is because most of the operators virtual (covering 78% of offers in this price range) does not yet have 5G. Above the threshold of the survey, however, virtual operators have a lower weight (representing 52% of the offers) and 5G becomes much more widespread.
It should also be noted that the choice of a rate of less than 10 euros also entails other sacrifices: in fact, this type of rate only in 23% of cases allows you to purchase a smartphones in installments. By choosing a rate of at least 10 euros, however, this percentage rises to 56%. The same goes for eSIMs, accessible only with 32% of offers for less than 10 euros against 56% of offers with a fee of at least 10 euros.
Also to exploit the advantages of convergence fixed + mobile (choosing the same operator for both services in order to access additional bonuses) the options for less than 10 euros are reduced. Only 20% of rates of less than 10 euros provide for this possibility, while 52% of rates of more than 10 euros can be included in a landline + mobile promotion.