Pay to downgrade mobile price plan

Reports in the German press reveal that O2 is to start charging its customers Euro 50.00 for moving to a tariff of lesser value. It is quite common that downgrading to a lower priced contract either incurs a charge or alternatively a subscriber can only do so only after x months, generally being six months, into the contract.

Tariff Consultancy analyst comments:
The aim of introducing this cost is to ensure that ARPU remains high amongst postpaid customers. Since December 2006, the postpaid ARPU figure for O2 was Euro 34.1, 13.7  per cent lower than in 2006, the decrease is to be attributed to the 10 per cent termination rate cut in November 2007, the fierce price competition and the migration of the current customer base to new customer offers. As the comparison below shows, the O2 Germany's ARPU is declining and its ARPU is relatively low if compared to its counterparts in other countries.

Prices are in Euros and include tax at 19 per cent.

O2's Blended ARPU in Euros