Category Archives: Analysis

ARPU growth almost always slower than inflation

Tefficient’s 37th public analysis of mobile data development and drivers compares trends across 37 countries worldwide, excluding M2M/IoT from the total bases.

Previous analyses have shown that the pandemic led to a significant increase in mobile data usage. However, the demand for more mobile data has since slowed down. In 2022, Czechia experienced the highest growth rate in mobile data usage, reaching 59%. At the other end of the spectrum, Qatar and Taiwan had relatively lower increases, both below 9%.

Continue reading ARPU growth almost always slower than inflation

Creating convergent service bundles for SMEs

Reference: Analysis, 2023

Operators often face uncertainty when addressing small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). Should they treat SMEs like consumers or corporate customers? SMEs, being akin to a close-knit family, is a mass market but could sometimes require a personalised approach. Should operators assign dedicated sales representatives to cater to their specific needs and assemble tailored solutions?

While many operators equate convergence with fixed-mobile services, its scope extends far beyond that. Convergent SME bundles should not be limited to combining fixed and mobile services alone. SMEs have diverse requirements that operators can effectively address, such as switchboard functionality, contact center tools, office software, domain and hosting, cloud storage, cyber security, insurance, and more.

Example from Free (France)
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High data usage countries do better on ARPU development than low-usage countries

Tefficient’s 36th public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data compares the trends of 45 countries globally.

In our previous analyses, we saw that the pandemic led to an increase in the mobile data usage. The demand for more mobile data has since slowed. Czechia experienced the fastest growth in mobile data usage in 2022: 56%. On the other end of the spectrum, Iceland witnessed a decrease in usage. Austria, China, Malaysia and Norway had some increase, but it was below 9%.

Continue reading High data usage countries do better on ARPU development than low-usage countries

Interviewing operators on sentiments towards current and future mobile data monetisation and service bundling

Reference: Analysis, 2022

Tefficient conducted a series of one-to-one interviews with operator executives from various global markets to gain insights into their perspectives on mobile data monetisation and service bundling models, with a focus on current and future trends.

The interviews delved into topics such as the sufficiency of current bucket and unlimited tiered mobile data propositions, the pricing of 5G, the success of speed tiering, and how content bundling can help operators. Experiences from hard bundling, soft bundling (with choice), add-on sales and content aggregation were discussed. Additionally, the interviews explored how operators can design their propositions in a QoE and slicing future where tiering is not limited to volume, speed, and content.

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Making sense of operators’ cyber security offerings in 14 countries

Reference: Analysis, 2022

With the growing reliance on internet connectivity, telecom operators have an important role to play in protecting their customers from cyber threats such as fraud and malware. However, as internet usage can also expose users to risks such as the spread of malicious content, identity hijacking, and online slander, it is crucial for telecom operators to provide comprehensive cyber security services and solutions.

The service portfolio and the methods for offering these services can vary greatly between operators. Some are better than others in packaging and upselling cyber security.

Example from AT&T

To gain a comprehensive understanding of the cyber security offerings in 14 different markets, Tefficient conducted a thorough analysis of all of the cyber security offerings from all telecom operators in those markets. The analysis categorised the offerings according to:

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Further slowdown in data usage growth causes positive ARPU development to soften

Tefficient’s 35th public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data compares the trends of 46 countries from around the world. In our previous reports, we observed that the pandemic drove an increase in mobile data usage. However, during the second half of 2021 and into 2022, the demand for more mobile data slowed.

Greece experienced the fastest growth in mobile data usage, with a 45% increase. On the other end of the spectrum, Qatar, Peru, Malaysia, and Austria saw unusually slow growth rates of just 1-3%.

Continue reading Further slowdown in data usage growth causes positive ARPU development to soften

Benchmarking fibre pricing in Denmark with eight other European countries

Fiberalliancen is a trade association for companies that own, operate and use fibre networks in Denmark. It is a part of Green Power Denmark.

For the second time (the first analysis was done in 2021), Tefficient has performed a comprehensive fibre broadband pricing benchmark covering nine European markets: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland (new since 2021), Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK and France.

As part of a press release, Fiberalliancen makes Tefficient’s analysis publicly available. Download it from the right ‘Links’ column. It’s in English.

The release concludes that:

  • Denmark has some of the lowest consumer prices for both new and existing fibre connections. Only French consumers generally get a better deal than Danish consumers.
  • Danish consumer prices – both for new and existing connections – have overall fallen from 2021 to 2022. This is only seen in Denmark and the UK.
  • According to Ookla, Denmark has the fastest median broadband download speeds among the countries included in the comparison.

Tefficient’s approach has been thorough and the results are presented in a set of graphs like below.

Example graph from the analysis showing the total 2-year fee for the new build fibre case. The red trend line highlights Denmark’s position.
Continue reading Benchmarking fibre pricing in Denmark with eight other European countries

ARPU improved when data usage growth slowed down

Timely; inflation knocked on the door shortly after

Tefficient’s 34th public analysis on the development and drivers of mobile data ranks 104 operators based on average data usage per SIM, total data traffic and revenue per gigabyte in the full year of 2021 and in the first half of 2022.

In 2021 – a year marked by COVID – the data usage per SIM grew for 97% of operators. The average traffic growth was 32%. A majority of operators, 62%, could turn data usage growth into ARPU growth.

62% of operators could turn data usage growth into ARPU growth

Continue reading ARPU improved when data usage growth slowed down

Usage growth decelerates after COVID – but monetisation improves

Tefficient’s 33rd public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data compares 46 countries from all regions of the world.

In our previous reports for 2020 and 1H 2021 we could see that the pandemic drove mobile data usage – contrary to the belief that all that time we spent at home would offload mobile data traffic to Wi-Fi and fixed broadband.

But the usage backlash is here: During the second half of 2021 the demand for more mobile data slowed. If comparing countries where usage is available for both the first and the second half of the year, most experienced decelerating growth. There were even five countries with a decline in absolute usage: Australia, Iceland, Qatar, Austria and Bahrain.

Continue reading Usage growth decelerates after COVID – but monetisation improves

Assessment of Norwegian mobile and fixed broadband pricing in a Nordic context – 2022

Norway’s Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development yesterday published two analyses commissioned from Tefficient.

The conclusion is summarised (in Norwegian) in a press release from the Ministry: https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/norske-mobilpriser-er-fortsatt-hoye-i-nordisk-sammenheng/id2909632/

Both analyses are quite comprehensive and compare Norway to the three fellow Nordic countries Denmark, Sweden and Finland. It means that they are highly interesting not just for the industry and policy makers in Norway, but in all four countries.

Sample graph from the mobile report
Sample graph from the fixed broadband report

Since the Ministry has made both analyses available for public download, you can access them directly and for free from here:

Assessment of Norwegian mobile revenues in a Nordic context – 2022

Assessment of Norwegian fixed broadband pricing in a Nordic context – 2022

The analyses are one-year-later updates of the original analyses that provided input to the government’s white paper to the Norwegian Parliament titled “Vår felles digitale grunnmur — Mobil-, bredbånds- og internettjenester“. See Tefficient’s reference from last year:

Commissioned by Norway’s Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development.