Are you paying a good price for your mobile data? Find out how mobile data prices in Ireland compare to those across Europe and who offers the best price.
How expensive is mobile data in Ireland?
A comparison to Europe and the rest of the world
Mobile data prices are constantly fluctuating. They differ a lot per country, mobile operator, and type of service (prepaid or postpaid). That’s why it can be hard to assess whether you’re paying more than you should for your mobile data. While they may not answer all your questions about mobile data costs in Ireland, the reports we’re sharing below will help shed some light on the true state of the mobile communications market in Europe. And they might give you a clue about the best-priced mobile data packages on the Irish market.
Which countries have the most expensive mobile data in Europe?
Based on the EU’s latest Mobile Broadband Prices in Europe report (from 2019), the least expensive countries in Europe when it comes to mobile data are Estonia, Romania, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Austria, and the United Kingdom. At the other end of the price spectrum, we find Hungary, Portugal, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Slovakia. Ireland falls in between the two extremes, but still in the group of relatively expensive countries.
How do mobile data prices in Ireland compare to the rest of Europe?
What does it mean to be relatively expensive when it comes to mobile data? In the EU’s report, countries are compared based on cumulative data on prepaid and postpaid mobile plans, including data-only and handset-based plans.
However, to get a more detailed understanding of how Ireland and Irish mobile data prices compare to the rest of Europe, it’s more helpful to compare similar data packages across countries. E.g. the costs of the smallest data package (500MB) and biggest data package (50GB) in Ireland vs the rest of Europe.
Here’s what that comparison looks like:
From these graphs, it’s clear that for the lowest mobile data consumption package of 500MB, Irish customers pay more than the EU average. This may be due to several reasons, including less demand for these types of mobile data packages on the local market.
When it comes to big mobile data packages (50GB), Ireland does better in terms of mobile data prices, landing well below the EU average.
How do mobile data prices in Ireland compare to the rest of the world?
Within Europe, Ireland is relatively expensive when it comes to mobile data costs. How does that look when compared to the rest of the world? In a report by Cable.co.uk, Ireland ranks 79th in the world in terms of average price per 1GB of mobile data. That’s a decent place to hold.
It puts us behind countries such as Turkey (25th place) and Brazil (49th place). However, we’re still well ahead of countries such as the USA (154th place) and Canada (190th place). Browse through the full report for more comparisons and interesting insights.
What is the mobile operator with the cheapest mobile data in Ireland?
In the reports we discuss here, countries are compared based on average prices across different local mobile operators’ offers. Of the Irish mobile data packages included in the EU’s report (both prepaid and postpaid), Three mobile plans seem to offer the best prices across data bundles ranging from 500MB to 50GB.
As mentioned before, mobile data prices fluctuate a lot over time. The data discussed here is from 2019. It’s possible that another operator offers Ireland’s cheapest mobile data in the EU’s next report. If that’s the case, we’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime, you can easily top up Three online on Recharge.com. We also offer mobile top up for other Irish mobile operators.
