Austrian telecoms regulator RTR has published a new report analysing price developments of mobile phone services in Austria between 2011 and 2014 compared to international price trends. The report was done to establish whether the merger of Hutchison (H3G) and Orange Austria (Orange), which took place at start-2013, had a significant impact on prices before the merger commitments (MVNO entries) became effective.
RTR estimates significant price increases of between 50-90 percent for smartphone users and 22-31 percent for traditional users within the two years after the merger (before the merger commitments became effective). It found that prices increased significantly during this period even if the costs of frequencies from the October 2013 auction are taken into account.
