Based on Quantum-Web’s ongoing quarterly European Broadband Tariffs Trackers the most significant findings for EU members in Q4 2011 include:

•As the consequence of a dual challenge faced by operators to invest in the future roll-out of high-performance fibre optic network projects and the requirement of customers for a full-coverage broadband network with ever-increasing bandwidths, operators offer nearly identical tariffs for their broadband services disregarded the access technology.

• An increasing number of operators are offering bundled mobile and fixed broadband packages due to the profitability of fixed-mobile bundling formula which minimising the fixed to mobile substitution and also reducing the churn rate of customers.

• Among the bundled services, the most viable and economically convenient form of bundling broadband packages the Quad-Play provides the best results.

• During the Q4 2011, Slovenia had the highest unweighted Stand-alone broadband tariffs in Europe. Romania offered some of the cheapest broadband tariffs in the same category. During the same period Spain had the highest tariffs of Double Play and again Romania provided the cheapest tariffs and finally in the case of Triple Play, Cyprus and Bulgaria offered the most expensive and the cheapest bundled packages in the EU 27 markets.

According to the results of an ongoing tariff monitoring, in the fourth quarter of 2011 the average European broadband tariffs are nearly identical for all access technologies and speed bands. 

The average stand-alone tariffs of 1Mbps-2Mbps is 15.75 Euro per month and for the same speed band this average rose to 23.04 Euro for a typical Triple Play package. The 8 Euro circa variation between Stand-alone and Triple Play includes the cost of bundled voice and IPTV of xDSL technology or TV channels on Cable modem or Fibre optic platforms.

The average stand-alone tariffs of 2Mbps-8Mbps speed band is 17.72 Euro whereas the average cost of Triple Play packages is 25.57 Euro. Telcos offer nearly identical tariffs for Triple Play services on xDSL and Cable modem technologies and Fibre optic operators provide cheaper rates for the same bundled packages.

Graph1- Stand-alone and bundled (1Mbps-2Mbps, 2Mbps-8Mbps) broadband tariffs in Euro.

The most harmonised price policy for Stand-alone and Triple Play among different speed bands is registered in the 16Mbps-24Mbps and 24mbps-100Mbps bracket where the average price for Stand-alone are 21.71, 28.32 Euro and 39.58, 40.19 Euro for Triple Play packages respectively. 

This harmony is slightly changing in 8Mbps-16Mbps due to the higher xDSL stand-alone tariffs in this speed band and in the over 100Mbps speed band due to the high cost (106.9 Euro) of FTTx “stand alone”.

Graph2- Stand-alone and bundled (8Mbps-16Mbps, 16Mbps-24Mbps) broadband tariffs in Euro.

Graph3- Stand-alone and bundled (24Mbps-100Mbps, 100Mbps and over) broadband tariffs in Euro.

This is a comparative analysis of Q4 2011 broadband tariffs for the 27 European Union member states based on Quantum-Web’s ongoing quarterly European Broadband Tariffs Tracker

For more information about the findings of this press release or Quarterly Broadband Tracker contact Qmars Safikhani, Head of Analytical Research at Quantum-Web +44 (0) 20 3286 9570 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.