Australia near bottom of 4G value table

Peter Dinham
Friday, 09 December 2011 12:42

IT Industry - Market

Australia and Telstra have scored poorly, while European telcos lead the pack in a research report on carriers around the world who offer the best value for money 4G mobile data plans.

In its latest research report released today, the Economist Intelligence Unit found that the mobile network operators offering the best overall value for money on 4G or Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology are Scandinavian companies.

However, Australia and Telstra languish down the bottom of the rankings at number eight with a value-for-money score of three, compared to top ranked Sweden and one of the country's carriers, Tele2 with a score of 4.20 for value for money on 4G or LTE. Other operators in Scandinavia, including TeliaSonera, Telenor and TDC, ranked just behind Sweden and Tele2.

Despite the low prices on offer in North America, operators there also scored relatively poorly in the index, with Verizon Wireless occupies a mid-table ranking of fifth, and Canada's Bell Mobility comes in seventh place.

Although Verizon gets high marks for mobility, due to its range of smartphone and tablet devices (which score more highly than dongles and routers), it advertises a much slower service than operators in Europe and Asia, while both Verizon and Bell cap monthly data usage at a maximum of 10 gigabytes. The EIU report says that Caps of 30 gigabytes are common in Europe.

In Asia, however, operators fall even lower down the rankings, with Japan's NTT DoCoMo coming in at eighth, scoring poorly on price and usage allowance, while South Korea's SK Telecom ranked tenth, owing to the expense of its tariffs and low data-usage limits. The report reveals that SK Telecom expects customers on its most expensive tariff to pay a whopping 8.9 per cent of PDI each month, whereas Tele2's most expensive tariff, by contrast, costs customers only 2.6 per cent of PDI.

According to the EIU, LTE is a top priority for many mobile network operators, with the 'so-called' '4G' technology promising much faster speeds and greater capacity than the current crop of network technologies. Although the number of commercial deployments is still relatively limited, the report found that most operators around the world will look to introduce LTE over the next couple of years.

Already, regional patterns are emerging, according to the report, and while Europe's LTE providers advertise much faster services and allow customers to consume more data than operators elsewhere, it found that prices in North America are typically lower, while premium 4G tariffs in Asia, by contrast, consume a high percentage of personal disposable income.

Here's the full Economist Intelligence Unit LTE value for money index:

Economist Intelligence Unit LTE value for money index

Rank	Operator	Country	Score (scale of 1-5)
1	Tele2	Sweden	4.20
2	TeliaSonera	Denmark	4.00
3=	Telenor	Sweden	3.70
3=	TeliaSonera	Finland	3.70
3=	TeliaSonera	Norway	3.70
4	TDC	Denmark	3.40
5=	T-Mobile	Austria	3.20
5=	Verizon	USA	3.20
6=	A1	Austria	3.10
6=	Telekom Deutschland	Germany (urban)	3.10
7	Bell Mobility	Canada	3.07
8=	NTT DoCoMo	Japan	3.00
8=	TeliaSonera	Sweden	3.00
8=	Telstra	Australia	3.00
9	Vodafone	Germany	2.80
10	SK Telecom	South Korea	2.64
11=	Telekom Deutschland	Germany (rural)	1.90
11=	O2	Germany	1.90

Note: only operators that feature details of data-usage caps and download speeds can be included in the 'value for money' index.  Source: Economist Intelligence Unit