The BIPT mapped out how the prices of standalone mobile subscriptions evolved between January 2019 and January 2024 and shows that this market has generally evolved in a positive sense for consumers.
A first improvement concerns an expansion of the product range and, more specifically, the emergence of subscriptions with data packages of more than 20 GB per month. Before 2019, the largest data package available contained 20 GB. Today, almost every brand offers at least one subscription with much more mobile data, up to 300 GB.
In addition, the minimum price for subscriptions with at least 10 GB of mobile data has dropped significantly. Despite this, there are still significant price differences between brands. For data needs of 1, 2 or 5 GB, the price of the cheapest subscription on the market stagnated between 2021 and 2024.
Several factors have contributed to this generally favourable development. For instance, the major operators have already anticipated the arrival of the fourth network operator Digi in their pricing policies through secondary brands such as Scarlet, Mobile Vikings and hey!. Although price indexations were still taking place, these often fit in with a 'more-for-more' strategy that also involved increasing the number of gigabytes. In addition, a 2022 BIPT directive stipulated that the term "unlimited mobile Internet" can only apply to subscriptions with at least 300 GB, which brought more clarity as regards the higher segment.
However, there is still room for improvement. The international BIPT price study of December 2023 shows that Belgium is still significantly more expensive than its neighbours in terms of both limited (up to 10 GB) and very high data requirements (from 100 GB).