Ever since Free has started as a forth mobile network operator in France, the three others are less than happy about it and are complaining about too much competition and too lower prices by their fourth competitor. But, I would argue, they are still far from the prices consumers enjoy in other countries. Here's a pretty interesting example:
When I'm in France I use a prepaid Internet access offer of Orange at the moment. 25 euros buys me 495 megabytes of data to be used within 2 months. In Austria, on the other hand, I get 1500 megabytes on a prepaid SIM valid for 12 months for only 20 euros. 495 megabytes in two months, vs. 1500 megabytes over 365 days for even less money. Quite a a difference I would say.
I just smile and think of Finland, where a prepaid SIM card comes with unlimited data at a rate of 1.90 EUR/day.
Planning on staying in the country longer? Then send a text to order a week or a month of data. Pay more money for more speed, or less money for slower speeds, both options come with unlimited consumption. In other words, wireless data is priced like wired data.
And if you’re going to be here for a while, and you don’t mind waiting for pages to load, you can get the plan I’m on: unlimited data for 6 months for just 30 EUR. Yes, you’re capped at less than half a megabit per second, but who cares?!