RIA African Mobile Pricing 2010-2015

Prepaid Mobile Voice and SMS Pricing:

RIA use the OECD basket methodology <http> to examine the cost of making a set basket of calls over a monthly period in each country. Prices are converted to USD for ease of comparison. Mobile call baskets include a pre-determined number of calls, SMS messages each month. RIA makes use of the OECD 30 call basket which is weighted at a total of 50 calling minutes per month and 100 SMSs per month. Unlike the OECD, which only examines prices of dominant operators in each market, RIA collects data for all operators in the market.

Prepaid Mobile Broadband Data Pricing:

RIA collects prices of 1GB of prepaid data by country on a quarterly basis. Where there is no 1GB product, the cheapest combination of products worth 1GB is used. The prepaid data offer should be valid for at least 30 days. Modem prices are excluded. The benchmarking of prepaid mobile broadband data is combined with Ookla download and upload speed data by operator <http> to produce a Mobile Broadband Value for Money Index.

Prepaid Mobile Bundle Pricing:

Information on blended bundles that include data and voice, or data and SMS, or data, voice and SMS, are collected quarterly by country. RIA adds the value of bundled minutes, SMS, and data and divides by the monthly payment to arrive at a prepaid “bundle” value for each country. These are used to create a Prepaid Bundle Value Index (BVI).
The bundle must have data and either voice and/or SMS. The cost in local currency (tax inclusive) and in USD is captured for each product. The value of bundled minutes is derived by multiplying the number of minutes with a fixed USD value. One minute is valued at 10 US cents, 1 SMS at 1 US cent, and 1 MB data at 10 US cents. A “bundled” product that costs USD3.82 with 180 minutes, 50 SMSs and 5MB will therefore have the following (BVI) score:

BVI=(1800.1+500.01+5*0.1)/3.82=4.97

Unlimited call, SMS or data offers were made comparable to capped packages by applying the following rules:
· Unlimited minutes = 240 minutes per day (7200 minutes per month)
· Uncapped SMS = 240 SMSs a day (7200 per month)
· Uncapped data = the limit stipulated in the “”fair terms of use policy, or 30 GB, whichever is smaller

Post-paid Mobile Products Pricing:

Post-paid prices are collected quarterly for African countries which display a significant proportion of post-paid versus prepaid market share. The data captured includes
· Price of each post-paid package on the market
· The number of voice minutes, SMSs, and data (MB) per month

This information is used to create a Postpaid Value Index (PVI)

The PVI measures the value a customer gets for the monthly subscription price in terms of bundled minutes, SMSs and data. The value of bundled minutes is derived by multiplying the number of minutes with a fixed USD value. One minute is valued at 10 US cents, 1 SMS at 1 US cent, and 1 MB data at 10 US cents. Out of bundle rates and handsets inclusive packages are not accounted for in index construction. Unlimited calls, SMSs or data offers were made comparable to capped packages by applying the same rules used to create the Prepaid Bundle Value Index:

· Unlimited minutes = 240 minutes per day (7200 minutes per month)
· Uncapped SMS = 240 SMSs (7200 per month)
· Uncapped data = the limit stipulated in the “”fair terms of use policy, or 30 GB, whichever is smaller