SLOVAKS pay more than Poles to access the internet from their mobile phones but less than Czechs and Hungarians, according to the Sme daily, which compared services and prices in the four countries.
Slovaks can buy 500 MB of downloaded data from mobile internet providers without additional costs for a monthly fee of €6 while Polish customers can get more than double that amount, 1.2 GB, for the same price. Hungarian customers pay €6.87 for the same amount of data while Czech customers get only 150 MB of data for a similar price.
The comparison prepared by the daily included only data packages offered by internet service providers on their websites for mobile devices. The analysis did not include special offers or discounted prices for internet access via tablets or computers.
The daily attributed the lower prices in Poland to sharp competition in that country, as five operators offer such mobile services there while Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary have only three available service providers each.
The price of mobile internet service depends on the size of the market and the structure of the devices used to access services, Andrej Gargulák, spokesperson for Slovak Telekom, told Sme, adding that a boom in smartphone use in Slovakia has spurred demand for mobile internet access.
Sme wrote that the approach of mobile internet providers also differs within the four Visegrad countries, noting that after mobile users in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary use up their free allocation of data, the transfer speed is lowered by the operators while Slovak customers mostly pay additional fees for data in excess of the monthly allotment.
