Category Archives: Finland

Nordic operator benchmark 2022

Reference: Benchmarks, 2022

For the ninth year: Comprehensive business benchmark with 895 KPIs covering revenue, OPEX, CAPEX, headcount productivity, subscriptions & channels, performance, load, quality and innovation & growth – for 53 functions of mobile, fixed and integrated operators.

Peer group data exclusively from Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Danish operators. Due to pre-agreed confidentiality requirements, participating operators are anonymous (and of course their data).

The results demonstrate the value of a region-specific benchmark approach: Nordic operators have global leadership in a wide array of business aspects and a global benchmark would therefore leave them without guidance on how to improve further. In contrast, participating operators now have a great tool to improve their local competitiveness even further.


As every year, the Nordic operator benchmark will be enhanced further based on input from participants. It will run again in January 2023. Read more about the benchmark here.

Benchmarking fibre pricing in Denmark with eight other European countries

Reference: Analysis, 2022

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

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

Reference: Analysis, 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.

Who has the best mobile network in the Nordics?

Opensignal’s Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 2022 showed that the mobile networks of Sweden, Finland – and especially Norway and Denmark – provide some of the best experiences in the world.

But there are many companies – some with global, some with local ambitions – that offer their take on who has the best mobile network. To differentiate, providers define different metrics and use different methodologies. Rather than boring you with those, we have compiled a cross-case table naming the winner per each metric across four global network experience specialists: Opensignal, Tutela, Ookla Speedtest and umlaut.

We have included the latest overall or 5G-specific tests made public in 2021 or 2022.

Continue reading Who has the best mobile network in the Nordics?

Back to normal? Or will 5G push the envelope?

Tefficient’s 32nd public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data compares 46 countries – now with Brazil added – from all regions of the world.

In our previous, full year 2020, report 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.

Although the pandemic was still very much present in our daily life, the relaxation of restrictions in the first half of 2021 led to a more normal growth in mobile data usage.

Continue reading Back to normal? Or will 5G push the envelope?

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

Reference: Analysis, 2021

Norway’s Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation has today published an extensive white paper to the Norwegian Parliament titled “Vår felles digitale grunnmur — Mobil-, bredbånds- og internettjenester“.

Tefficient has written two comprehensive analyses to support chapter 7 in the white paper addressing mobile and fixed broadband networks:

  • “Assessment of Norwegian mobile revenues in a Nordic context”
  • “Assessment of Norwegian fixed broadband pricing in a Nordic context”

The first analysis investigates whether Norwegian mobile prices should be considered high or moderate given certain specific Norwegian conditions. A multitude of metrics are used – always compared between the same four markets: Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

The second analysis investigates Norwegian broadband prices, comparing them against three other Nordic markets: Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

The white paper (in Norwegian) summarises the two analyses in sections 7.2.1.4 and 7.2.2.3 using selected graphs and conclusions. The ministry has integrated the key findings with own and independent research, data and viewpoints to form a basis for future policy.

Continue reading Assessment of Norwegian mobile and fixed broadband pricing in a Nordic context

Why cutting 10% of present actuals risks your business

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

Madonna

Don’t get us wrong, cost management is important. Our point is that you should not base your improvement targets on your present actuals.

With targets such as “All functions cut 10% off the costs”, you risk cutting down on the activities that are key to your success. Too. Because you don’t know for sure that they are actually key to your success. Since you haven’t measured it against relevant peers. This year. It risks your business: The negative impact of 10% cost reduction in an activity that is key to your success could easily outweigh the positive impact of a equally large cost reduction in an activity which actually needed to be trimmed.

COVID-19 has raised the bar. In the midst of a global health crisis, telcos are delivering. For many operators, Q3 2020 represents their best EBITDA margin quarter ever. But we need to be honest about why. Many cost reductions have – so far – come almost automatically:

Continue reading Why cutting 10% of present actuals risks your business

Nordic operator benchmark 2020

Reference: Benchmarks, 2020

For the eighth consecutive year: Comprehensive business benchmark with 890 KPIs covering revenue, OPEX, CAPEX, headcount productivity, subscriptions & channels, performance, load, quality and innovation & growth – for 54 functions of mobile, fixed/cable and integrated operators.

Peer group data exclusively from Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Danish operators. Due to pre-agreed confidentiality requirements, participating operators are anonymous (and of course their data).

Continue reading Nordic operator benchmark 2020

Who has the best 4G network in the Nordics?

This is our fourth comparison of the mobile network experiences in the Nordics based on performance data from Opensignal. There are more details and background is the previous (onetwothree) blogs.

This time the data is gathered from March to May 2019. The data has not been published by OpenSignal but has been shared with us through Opensignal’s analyst program.

4G availability

The graph below ranks the fourteen operators in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland after how large proportion of time 4G capable devices have been connected to 4G. Opensignal calls this 4G availability.

Continue reading Who has the best 4G network in the Nordics?