Invest in Finland

Finland enjoys lowest mobile phone call rates in OECD

14/08/2009

Comparing prices on a medium-use basis for a package of 780 voice calls, 600 short texts (SMS), and eight multimedia (MMS) messages, the survey found monthly prices ranged from 11 to 53 US dollars across countries as of August 2008.

On this medium-use basis, the annual phone bill in Finland came to USD 131.44 which was the cheapest in the OECD countries, along with the Netherlands. Finland was also among the cheapest OECD countries in the low and high use categories.

According to the OECD Communications Outlook, mobile phone call prices fell on average by 21% for low usage consumers, 28% for medium usage and by 32% for subscribers with the highest consumption patterns between 2006 and 2008. The report also says that the share of telecommunications sector revenue from mobile phone use had reached 41% in OECD countries by 2008. The decline in operators’ revenue from fixed telephone lines has, however, been slowed by the expansion of high-speed broadband Internet as subscribers usually keep a fixed line to receive the service.