The average cost per minute in mobile communications in Lithuania was as low as 1.9 euro cents in 2011, the report says. At the other end of the scale were the Netherlands with the average cost of 14.7 euro cents per minute.
According to the Commission, these price differences cannot be explained by differences in quality, differences in the cost to provide the service, or by differences between countries in consumer purchasing power.
“As these numbers clearly show, the 28 national telecoms markets in Europe today are not benefitting consumers like a single market would. It is critical for the whole EU to move quickly to build a real single market to achieve a truly connected continent,” Neelie Kroes, the Commission’s Vice President, said in a press release.
In September, Kroes will present a new package aimed at strengthening the Telecoms single market.
According to the report, domestic mobile calls across the EU are cheapest in Lithuania, followed by Romania, Latvia, Bulgaria, and Poland. The calls are most expensive in the Netherlands, followed by Luxembourg and Belgium.
