The reason is the value protection clauses, which are coming into effect again. “It can be assumed that it is around eight percent,” wrote the AK on Wednesday. At the same time, however, making calls and especially surfing on cell phones has become cheaper in recent years. This is mainly because new tariffs would offer higher data volumes with the same basic fees.
Not all providers have value protection clauses in their contracts. According to AK, ten providers have numerous tariffs with value protection clauses, while 16 do not currently have these clauses. In addition, several mobile tariff providers such as HoT and Spusu have already announced that they will not make any inflation adjustments this year.
Switch to a contract without a value protection clause
In order to avoid frequent price increases, the Chamber of Labor recommends switching to a contract without such a value protection clause. If you change provider, you should compare several tariffs and know your own consumption well. The AK also points out that there is a free special right of termination if a provider’s price increase is based on a value adjustment or index clause that is based on inflation. Furthermore, there is only a legal right to carry your own telephone number with you if you “genuinely” change provider and not, for example, if you simply switch to a discount brand from the same provider.
Price analysis among 26 cell phone providers
In general, calling and surfing became cheaper between February 2020 and 2024. This is shown by a price analysis of 26 cell phone providers. “The main reason: All providers have new tariffs that can be registered with more extensive data quotas and the basic fees are often unchanged,” writes the AK. On average, users’ data consumption has doubled in the past four years, while there have been hardly any changes when making calls and writing text messages.
With the largest providers A1, Magenta and Drei, however, it is noticeable that although the amount of data included and the maximum available bandwidth have increased, the costs for the cheapest tariffs in 2024 will be significantly higher than the cheapest tariffs from 2020. In contrast, there have been no service flat rates from the three major providers since February 2024, and in some cases the activation costs have been significantly reduced or have been eliminated.
