TCL (Tariff Consultancy Ltd), the experts in telecoms pricing worldwide, has published the latest edition of the TCL Global LTE Pricing Tariff Tracker subscription service, which shows the impact of new LTE (4G) network launches for the last 3 month period to the end of December 2013 (Q4-13) on pricing.

Over the last quarter TCL has included updated LTE pricing from 130 operators in more than 70 countries worldwide – with particular growth in new services seen from the South American region.

In more established markets, LTE operators are also reducing the price for existing LTE services – particularly in France, where LTE services are being charged at the same level as 3G data. Additionally a number of operators have introduced selective price discounts or bundles as part of a LTE promotion. Examples of LTE promotions include –

• Personal (Paraguay) – a 50 per cent price reduction in LTE tariffs
• Telefonica O2 (Germany) – a 40 per cent price reduction for entry level pricing (for the first 12 months of a 24 month contract term)
• Telekom (Germany) – a discount off the monthly fee plus a 3 month free period for the Music Streaming Option
• Vodafone (UK) – an option to subscribe to either Spotify Premium or Sky Sports Mobile with a 4G contract, with a free period ranging from 6 months up to 24 months (depending on the 4G package subscription)

Additionally, some LTE operators are now introducing Pre Pay services in selected markets, with ICE (Costa Rica) and Everything Everywhere (UK) both launching Pre Pay LTE in the last quarter. Another trend is the introduction of LTE as a low cost “add on” – with TIM (Italy) for example charging an additional Euro 5 per month for its 4G Internet Plus product, which allows theoretical download speeds of up to 70Mbps with the existing user data allowance.

The Q4-13 TCL Global LTE Pricing Tariff Tracker also segments LTE pricing (for Post Pay LTE for PC or laptop connectivity) into six main geographical regions around the world. It finds that average LTE pricing in the EU is now USD $34.89 per month (with an average monthly data allowance of almost 20GB) and is the lowest of the six regions surveyed by TCL.

Summary price details from the TCL Global LTE Pricing Tariff Tracker are shown in the chart below - with the LTE (4G) pricing shown by region based on the average price per GB):

Chart 1 – The average Post Pay LTE Pricing per month per GB by region (in USD) including taxes derived from inside the bundle. See attached xls file.  Source – TCL

The launch of new LTE services is set to continue into 2014, with developing markets in Asia, South America and the Middle East preparing for the commercial launch of new 4G networks.

Pricing for LTE services continues to develop rapidly. And operators are now experimenting with the bundling of additional content (e.g. music or mobile TV) with LTE 4G services in order to attract new users as an alternative to price discounting into 2014.

Download: LTE-Tracker.xls