French telecom federation FFTelecoms has published a new edition of its annual report on the key economic indicators for the industry, combining research from Arthur D. Little and several other sources. The report includes a tariff benchmark, carried out in November, comparing France to six other western markets (the US, the UK, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain).
As in last year's study, mobile users in France and Italy were found to benefit from the cheapest retail prices for a SIM-only voice and data plan with a 50 GB allowance, having access to a monthly subscription of EUR 12 in both countries. The UK has moved to nearly par with France and Italy, with its cheapest monthly plan priced at EUR 13, down from EUR 23 in the 2018 benchmark.
Looking at the fixed broadband segment, Poland (not included in the 2018 benchmark) has replaced France as the country offering the least expensive triple-play bundle with "unlimited" calls and TV (EUR 16/month). For French households, the cheapest package was EUR 24/month, up from EUR 15/month in the 2018 benchmark.
As in previous editions, the annual report highlights that a considerable imbalance remains in the corporate tax burden shouldered by French telecom companies compared to that of multinational internet players operating in the country, such as Google, Amazon and Facebook.
Among its other findings, the report draws attention to the continued high level of investment in the French telecom sector, which reached a new record of EUR 9.8 billion in 2018 according to regulator Arcep.
Capital expenditure on telecom networks (investment per capita) was considerably higher in the UK and France (EUR 139 and EUR 130 respectively) than in the other three EU countries in the benchmark, where capex/capita for 2018 ranged from EUR 81 in Italy to EUR 88 in Germany.
