The total number of mobile phone users in the first quarter of this year was 3,281,402. Of this, 74.7% were prepaid users, while 25.23% were post-paid users.
“The penetration rate of mobile telephony in BiH is 92%, which is below the current values in EU countries and the region,“ it was pointed out in the report of the Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA) that was sent to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
In the first quarter, it is said that the market share of BH Telekom was 47.31%, Telekom Srpske 38.43%, and HT Mostar 14.09%.
As stated in the CRA report, the mobile telephony market in BiH is predominantly prepaid oriented and is significantly behind in the development of European markets and the region.
The basic characteristics of the mobile telephony market in BiH are mentioned: insufficiently expressed competitiveness, high prices of traffic in relation to the EU and the environment.
Also, it was found that 80% of the user account changes are in the amount of 2 BAM, while the average monthly consumption is between 7 and 9 BAM. Operators are advised to increase the threshold of the validity period for smaller amounts, for example, from 5 or 7 BAM in order to comply with EU regulations.
One of the weaknesses of the tariff policy is the following:
“The user has to pay the service to the operator in advance, and userS always has a significant amount of funds on account (estimated at 10 million BAM) and if he has no activity for the given period, the problem is that the operators are using the funds even if they do not deliver it to the user, because the user does not spend the updated amount in 90 days. ”
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)