N1 research shows that the mobile telephony market in Serbia is not liberal and that there is a restriction of competition, which is why users pay the highest prices in the region.
Mobile operators in Serbia, but also throughout Europe, offer an unlimited number of calls and SMS messages, so the main tool in the fight for users is the amount of available Internet data.
If we compare mobile packages that have a minimum of five gigabytes in the markets of Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria, we see that the markets also offer mobile packages without a contractual obligation, but that in Bulgaria and Serbia users can get a discount on a monthly bill if they choose a package with contractual obligation for 24 months.
Based on the analysis of offers of mobile operators in the region, it can be seen that citizens in Serbia pay on average five times more for mobile data transmission than in Slovenia and 1.3 times more than in Croatia.
The thesis that the market of mobile services in Serbia is uncompetitive is supported by the data on significant differences in prices and the amount of available data of large telecommunications operators that operate at the same time in our country and in other countries in the region.
Users of A1 services in Serbia, compared to Slovenia, pay 6.6 times more expensive service, with Croatia almost twice as much, and compared to Bulgaria up to 1.3 times more.
The situation is similar with the PFF group, which operates in Serbia and Bulgaria as Telenor, and in the Czech Republic under the name O2. Users of Telenor services in our country pay on average 1.3 to 1.5 times more than Czechs and Bulgarians.
So they pay more even though they have by far the least amount of mobile internet in packages that contain more than 5 GB for mobile data transfer.
If we take into account all mobile telephony packages that include five or more gigabytes of free internet, in Serbia, on average, the amount of data transfer is limited to 37 gigabytes per month, and in Slovenia as much as 86, Bulgaria 56 and Croatia 53.
Mobile telephony users in Serbia are in an unfavorable position, because they have a worse offer compared to the citizens in the region, and at the same time they pay many times more for services.
Liberalization of the telecommunications market, free competition and fair market conditions are a way to provide customers in Serbia with lower prices and better quality mobile telephony services.
The fastest and best way for all stakeholders would be for all telecommunications operators in the market to be able to provide fixed and mobile telephony, internet and television services. Then both citizens and companies would have all the benefits.
Television market
If we analyze the television market, there are two main operators in Serbia, SBB and Telekom Serbia.
We compared the prices of operator packages in Slovenia, Austria, Bulgaria and Croatia that offer similar services and content as the SBB package EON Full. It can be seen that the prices of packages are higher than in Serbia, except in Bulgaria, and that users get less for that price.
As part of the SBB offer, the Smart TV application is included in the packages for all users, which is not the case in other countries. Most operators do not offer the Smart TV application, which allows the user to watch TV even without the Set Top Box.
The same is the case with the mobile application. Operators offer it, but not the possibilities as on TV, the number of TV channels, the function of returning content 7 days back. Also, access to the Video Club is charged by other operators, N1 reports.
