We developed a detailed benchmark of both retail and wholesale broadband prices across more than ten European countries

The problem

• Our client, a major European operator, sought to better understand the range of retail and wholesale broadband pricing in European jurisdictions, to see how the prices of its own broadband services compared to those of its peers
• The focus was on high-speed broadband products (at or over 100Mbit/s) on very high-capacity networks (VHCNs) using wireline technology (excluding wireless technologies)

The solution

• Our benchmarking was based on information in the public domain, supplemented by Analysys Mason’s own assumptions and information where necessary
• For the retail pricing study, we calculated median broadband prices for each country using a common framework to allow like-for-like comparisons, including:
  • economic specifics such as currency, taxes and purchasing power parity 
  • pricing features such as rebates, vouchers, discounts and gifts
  • service characteristics, such as additional bundled services, one-off charges and contract period (a common period of 24 months was assumed)
• Several factors that could influence the retail/wholesale prices, and therefore potentially account for differences, were also benchmarked, including:
  • level of retail and infrastructure competition
  • network footprint and deployment
  • average capex per home passed, plus proportion of multi-dwelling homes

Figure: Median monthly retail price per subscriber (EUR at purchasing power parity) by country

The result

• We produced two reports for the client, one covering our findings on the wholesale pricing benchmark and the other on our retail pricing benchmark, presenting our results across the peer group in a structured and uniform way
• Our client has used these reports to discuss its own pricing with the regulator and other bodies to show that it is reasonable compared to its peers