This year the "Christmas" offers for Christmas 2016 focus above all on data traffic: this is what emerges from the latest survey by SosTariffe.it on the world of mobile telephony. The promotions conveyed in this period of the year cost an average of 11,4 euros, about 1,71 euros less than normal packages, but include on average double the GB in the package.
During the Christmas period, the market for mobile tariffs from real operators becomes noticeably more lively. For this reason SosTariffe.it, one of the most popular rate comparison portals on the web, has carried out a special sector observatory to "photograph" the situation of offers for smartphones.
This survey analyzed the main Christmas packages that offer calls, SMS and data traffic against a periodic fee affected by promotions that will not be repeated in other periods of the year, comparing these data with the average of the rates marketed in the rest of the year. of 2016.
The results show that the "Christmas" packages mark a cost difference of 13% less compared to the periodic fee of the standard packages and 13,5% less on the final total annual price that the user will pay.
The biggest difference is found by SosTariffe.it in the GB of average data traffic included in the rates: in fact, those who sign up for a Christmas offer in this period get an average of 96% more data traffic than the rates marketed during the rest of the year .
The survey and the results
The study analyzed the prices and composition of the special promotions that can be activated by consumer users during the 2016 Christmas period. To be precise, the average of what was included in the offers (minutes, SMS and data traffic) and the related monthly and annual costs was calculated as well as the renewal period of the fee. The results were then compared with the average of the offers conveyed in 2016.
Lower rents at Christmas 2016
What is immediately noticeable thanks to the analysis is that, compared to the rest of the year, the prices of the offers for mobile telephony offered at Christmas 2016 are slightly lower.
As far as the periodic unit fee is concerned, in fact, it can be noted that compared to other periods of the year, today's average value has dropped by 13%: 11,4 euros for Christmas offers against 13,1 euros for standard offers.
The same dynamics, more or less, are also recorded in the analysis of the overall average annual cost. In detail, those who subscribed to a standard offer in 2016 pay around 162,4 euros a year, while over the Christmas period this figure drops by 13,5%, reaching 140,4 euros.
The renewal period of the fee is practically unchanged: these Christmas offers are renewed on average every 29,6 days, while the other 2016 rates are renewed every 29,13 days.
More voice and data traffic, less SMS
Lower fees but more data and voice traffic: at Christmas 2016, according to the SosTariffe.it study, the element that recorded the greatest increase was mobile Internet traffic.
The GB included in the packages, compared to the annual average of the offers, are 96% higher: 5888 MB (5,75 GB) for the "Christmas" offers against 3004 MB (2,93 GB) for those proposed during the rest of 2016 .
Voice traffic also increased at Christmas: compared to the 2016 average, the free minutes to everyone included in the packages increased by 78,8% in this period, going from 621,66 to 1111 minutes. This happens because several offers that do not include unlimited minutes during the rest of the year do so during the Christmas period.
The only element of mobile tariffs that decreases at Christmas are the SMS included, certainly due to the evident decrease in their use with the greater diffusion of APPs dedicated to instant messaging. In the 2016 Christmas period, in particular, the offers include 59,3% less free SMS than in the rest of the year (183,33 against 450,45).
