Thought the cost of living in the Netherlands was expensive enough already? Well, Belgian researchers just confirmed that it might get even more expensive.
Yup, that’s right. A recent report from the Consumer’s Association and the Belgian ‘Test Aankoop’ reveals that internet prices in the Netherlands are higher than in other European countries — and they’re continuing to rise.
Only Belgium is more expensive
The report compared the price of internet-only subscriptions in eight European countries. It focused on subscriptions offering at least 100 Mbps and with a duration of at least two years.
READ MORE | Setting up internet in the Netherlands: the complete guide
The results showed that consumers in the Netherlands pay an average of €41 per month for their internet. While that’s *a lot* it’s at least not as expensive as in Belgium — where people pay €48 on average.
Those prices are especially high when you compare them to other countries in Europe. The French pay an average of €27 per month and the Spaniards cash out with the lowest priced internet in Europe: €25 euros per month.
The lowdown on Dutch internet prices
As part of the report, the researchers compared the prices of internet-only subscriptions for 20 Dutch internet providers. Their calculations took discounts as well as one-off and fixed costs into account, including them in their overall price calculations.
So what provider is most budget-friendly and which of them go hard on your wallet?
The report shows the cheapest provider is Budget All-in-1 which offers internet for €29 per month. The most expensive are XS4All and Solcon who charge €47.65 and €46.75 respectively. KPN covers the middle ground with internet for €45.40 per month.
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Too little competition
In the report, the director of the Consumer’s Association, Sandra Molenaar, claims that internet prices in the Netherlands are not likely to decrease.
On the contrary, she fears a lack of competition will allow internet providers to increase the prices in the future: “KPN and Ziggo largely control the network, so they pretty much control the market. There is far too little competition. And that’s bad for consumers” — hey, that’s us!
What’s your experience with internet providers in the Netherlands? Tell us in the comments below!
Feature Image: AndrewLozovyi/Depositphotos
XS4ALL (my provider in NL) is expensive, yes. BUT: their equipment (Fritzbox) is super, their customer service is outstanding (really knowledgeable) and the network is very reliable. I can speak for France as well: most French did not have access to 100M connection at all, until Macron decided to push fiber to the whole country. So there is a lot of fighting in the market to get to the new customers, but price reductions are only temporarily. My fibre cable is hanging in front of my house, waiting to become operational, but aerial lines cannot be reliable. I just bought a router of my own, using the standard one from Orange only as modem ( because it is sh*t). And customer service has yet to be invented in France.
Ziggo, my ISP provider in Amsterdam, charges me €64/mo for 0.5G (Internet only). They also promised discounts for my Vodafone mobile subscription, which never happened.
In Bucharest, I pay €25/mo for 1G + TV + HBO.
Yes, the prices in the Netherlands are outrageously high without reason
tell me about something that’s not expensive in the netherlands 🤷♂️