New low-cost tariff

Drei wants to retire discounters with “up3”

Drei promises 50 gigabytes and 1000 minutes or text messages "for the life of the subscription" for EUR 4.90 per month.(Bild: drei.at)

A new price war is about to break out on the Austrian cell phone market. With a new tariff, mobile phone provider Drei is significantly undercutting its competitors HoT, spusu and Yesss! "We are now sending the discounters into retirement," said Sabine Hiemetzberger, the manager responsible for the "up3" brand.

Drei promises 50 gigabytes and 1000 minutes or text messages "for the life of the subscription" for EUR 4.90 per month. Comparable offers on the market currently cost eight to ten euros. Company CEO Günter Lischka wants to win 50,000 to 100,000 new customers with the offensive by the end of 2024, as he said at a press conference on Thursday.

Such a low tariff is possible because all processes have been digitalized with "up3". According to the information provided, switching, including canceling the existing contract and transferring the phone number, takes less than five minutes and is done entirely in the smartphone app.

According to Drei, there are 2.5 million customers with discount providers, which is a third of the market. This is the target group Drei is aiming at with its new mass product, as Lischka said. It is not a classic contract with a commitment, value retention clause and service fee, but "a subscription that can also be paused".

New "mobile communications paradise"?
The mobile communications market in Austria has often been highly competitive in the past. Until the takeover of Orange by Drei, Austria was for years the EU country with the lowest cell phone tariffs and was considered a "mobile paradise".

After the disappearance of Orange, the number of network operators fell from four to three, as a result of which mobile phone prices rose sharply from 2013. It was only when Hofer Telekom (HoT) was launched in January 2015 at EUR 9.90 per month that prices started to fall again.