In this month of January 2023, you may have the bad surprise to see that your package telephone and the internet has grown. Almost all operators of telecoms have chosen to pass on the increase in their operating costs that they are suffering, according to the latter, to that of their mobile and Internet packages, underlines theUFC-Que Choisir, Wednesday January 11. This concerns both new and old customers: watch your e-mail box carefully and read your bills carefully, because for the increase to take place, the telecom operator must notify its customer at least one month before the implementation. place of this increase. In other words, for an effective increase at the end of this month of January, you must have received a letter from your operator at the end of December. You cannot refuse it, but you have the right to terminate your plan free of charge and to opt for a cheaper offer from a competitor.
1 to 2 euros more at Bouygues and Orange, less than one euro at SFR
From a few cents to a few euros, here are the increases noted by the association. Count 1 to 2 euros more for the telephone plans of Bouygues – €1 on the B&You 40 GB package for example, €2 on the 80 GB one. At SFR, it will be necessary to wait for the February invoices to see increases ranging between 0.69 euro and 0.99 euro. According to UFC-Que Choisir, the operator would be particularly discreet by informing of this increase with only one insert, at the very bottom of the January invoice. Orange customers will see their package increased by 1 to 2 euros in March or April, with the exception of the main subscription with social reduction which should not increase, and the Coup demage offer which should even decrease . At Free, no increase is planned, the operator having planned not to increase the prices of its historical mobile plans to €2 and €19.99/month until 2027.
Catching up with an anomaly in the French market?
These increases are part of an upward trend in flat rates initiated several months ago. Last November, the online comparator Ariase noted that in one year – from November 2021 to November 2022 – the average price of a mobile subscription had already increased by 19.6%. The reasons given by the operators? Inflation (at 5.9% in December), the increase in the cost of electricity, wages or even the difficulty of supplying electronic components. The rating agency Fitch, on the contrary, estimated that the rise in energy costs would be limited for most telecommunications operators in Europe in 2021.
In fact, the increase in mobile plans would rather be due to an “anomaly of the French market”: particularly low French rates compared to European rates. A study by Arthur D. Little and the French Telecoms Federation in December 2021 showed that the cheapest 50 GB mobile plan in France cost 13 euros per month, or 34 euros less than in Germany.
