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Hikes in mobile services although Greeks already pay the highest prices within OECD

As if we, Greeks, wouldn’t pay the highest charges for mobile phone services among the member states of the organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Now, one service provider will increase charges for sending MMS. and trust me, other soon will follow this hikes policy.

A recent OECD report, revealed that Greek mobile phone users pay much more for their service than the average European, Turkish or Mexican consumer. Charges in Greece are two or even three times the OECD average.

The organization’s findings show that, in absolute figures, the average package for mobile phones costs 50.94 euros per month, which is second only to Japan’s 54.30 euros. However, in purchasing power parities, Greece is the most expensive country, at 67.92 euros, with Japan a distant second at 57.16 euros.

Cell phone networks argue that the aforementioned charges in Greece are the listed rates and not the actual ones: Corporate officials note that most clients receive offers with charges well below the original rates. They add point to the high taxation, which accounts for some 40 percent of the monthly bill.

Internet access via smartphones is also expensive in Greece. For instance, one network charges 0.07 euros for each megabyte used beyond the monthly allowance of the pay package, so 100 megabytes can set users back 7 euros.

Now, Greek users are due to dace new hikes. The start is reportedly made by Vodafone Greece.

According to telecompaper.com, “Vodafone Greece made changes to various mobile prepaid and postpaid programmes for individuals and corporate subscribers. For instance, residential and corporate postpaid charges for sending MMS to national networks will grow to EUR 0.59 per unit from EUR 0.49 as of 27 March. For prepaid customers, the charge will increase to EUR 0.59 per MMS from EUR 0.4836 from the same date. Other price increases concern SMS, voice mail, and over-the-limit calls as well as various mobile packages that include SMS, voice and MB and fixed packages for corporate end-users.”
What is the reason for the hikes? No one bothers to give an explanation. Much to my knowledge there have been no tax hikes recently and the last fee on telecommunication was imposed on 1.1.2017, which is , of course, paid by the user/subscriber and not by the companies.
PS to tell you the truth, mobile charges were always high, very high, indeed, even before the economic crisis and before the over-taxation.

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4 comments

  1. Interesting article. Today my wife and I went to Wind as one year ago my wife took out a contract with them
    and was given a free phone with the contract, which has another year to run. In recent days she has had a redline appearing on screen and the phone is playing up. We were told that it was a fault on the phone and she would have to buy a new phone. She was told that we could have it repaired but at our cost. Asked about coming out of the contract and was told we would have pay 100 euros plus to cancel the contract. MMMM

  2. It’s amazing how people in GR spend so much on phone bills.
    Ok, I know they talk way too much on the phone, but I have a Wind/Q karta and spend 10 EUR a month with 8 GB of internet. I make pretty much all my calls through the internet with whatsapp/viber/imessage etc and for the few landline calls I make, I use skype with is much cheaper.

  3. money lovely muneeeeee

    our predators are laughing themselves silly as they scoop up properties for peanuts and raise utilities to create more bankruptcy

  4. Mobile phone bills were always expensive in GR. I even have some friends who refuse to go KARTA because having a bill is ‘cool’. I had many friends paying 100 EUR a month plus on mobiles, it’s a big joke, especially now that phone companies don’t even give you free phones anymore!

    Funnily enough, karta in GR is very competitive so it is not true that mobile communication is expensive in GR, only billed mobile communication is expensive, not prepaid.