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Despite a lengthy process that began in the spring of 2018, Sprint and T-Mobile today agreed to extend the deadline for their proposed two-month merger, until June 29th. However, even if FCC finally approves the deal, after reading a new study by Rewheel, a mobile data analyst, it will be difficult to live in a country with only three major cellular service providers.
In the most recent version of Rewheel's 4G pricing study, which covers the first half of 2019, data shows that in countries with three mobile network operators, the median price of 1 GB of data is 113% to that of a typical country with four MNOs.
Unfortunately, for us, here in North America, things get even worse, because while the US is essentially four MNO countries (AT & T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint), the median price of one gigabyte of data is about 4.5 euros, which is three times higher than the median for a typical country of four MNOs.
Meanwhile, for our neighbors in northern Canada, the prices are almost ridiculous, with a cost of a data concert of 7.3 euros, against 2.9 euros for a typical country composed of three operators of storage networks . In addition, the price of 4G data plans in Canada is 24 times higher than a similar package in Europe, while the United States has only slightly increased, the packages evaluated here being 15 times more expensive. The only other country in the study with such anomalous data pricing is Japan, which, like the United States, suffers from data prices 15 times higher than the median prices of a European country composed of four MNOs. .
But perhaps the most telling measure is the cost of the least expensive data plan, with at least 20 GB of data in the United States and Canada, compared to what is available in Europe. In Canada, the cheapest package you can get with 20GB of data plan costs 67 euros, while in the US, this same package costs around 36 euros. In both cases, this represents at least double (or quadruple for Canada) the price of a typical European data package.
To bring this back home, as part of its merger plan (and to attract potential regulators), T-Mobile and Sprint said that if an agreement were reached, it would not increase the price of the plans mobile phone, including the price of 5G. when these new networks become active. However, since 4G data prices in the United States are already significantly higher than those available in most European countries, the comfort is not really huge. And this is what things look like under a four MNO regime and not a three-ORM system like the one in the United States if a merger is approved.
To take a closer look at Rehweel's data, feel free to click here and view the full report yourself.
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