Competition in the U.K. telecom market is so fierce that prices changed 1,800 times in one week, according to a recent Sparks Market Intelligence report. The study conducted by ForNova found an increase of 25% in the number of unique offers from January to August of this year.
“While monitoring the U.K. telecom market, it rapidly became clear that network carriers and mobile retailers are fighting to stay ahead,” said Nir Dupler, ForNova’s VP for business development.
The U.K. has four major mobile operators ― EE is the largest with 26.34 million subscribers followed by Telefónica’s O2, Vodafone and Hutchison’s 3. But the country also boasts 38 mobile virtual network operators, and some can outdo the competition when it comes to price. For instance, the report showed that for medium-sized data packages (up to four gigabytes) the MVNO Tesco Mobile was focused on packages with a zero upfront device cost, while EE and Vodafone’s packages focused on higher-end offerings, which included at least some device cost at the outset.
The competition is hottest for high data users, and U.K. customers are becoming more interested in speed as well. According to the regulatory agency Ofcom, the number of subscribers to high-speed LTE technology jumped from 318,000 in the first quarter of 2013 to more than six million in the first quarter of 2014. EE has the majority of the those with 4.2 million — the second highest number of LTE subscribers in all of Europe.
EE got a jumpstart on the LTE scene when Ofcom allowed it to use its current spectrum holdings to launch LTE ahead of its competition in 2012. EE has since pressed that advantage and now has LTE coverage that can reach 75% of the U.K. population.
Unable to compete yet with EE’s LTE network, other carriers have turned to other add-ons and pricing to attract high-end users. Recently, Vodafone, which has struggled to find customers willing to pay extra for LTE, started offering free Netflix with some of its LTE deals, and customers can also choose Spotify or Sky Sports to go with it.
Likewise, O2 hopes to attract customers with its perks program: all O2 customers get a free year of Evernote Premium software not to mention priority on concert tickets at London’s O2 Arena and the company’s 15 other branded venues.
With the variety of specialized offers, it’s difficult for all but the most savvy customers to compare plans. EE alone has 48 monthly plans that can be matched up with different devices.
And those device prices keep changing as well. As ForNova noted, recently EE dropped the price for the Samsung Galaxy S5 from £159 ($258) to zero with a 24-month contract at £34.99 ($57) a month. Of all the devices, Apple’s iPhone 5C had the most changes in price in the U.K.
All of this begs the question: if prices keep changing, how are U.K. customers supposed to know what plan to choose and when to sign up?
Some of those coveted high-end customers are no doubt waiting, since the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are due to arrive in the U.K. on Sept. 19. All four major operators will be offering the popular smartphones with their plans, but as of yet, none of them has revealed at what price.
For more news and analysis of Europe’s telecom scene, check out RCR Wireless’ EMEA coverage, or follow me on Twitter.
