Study finds one-euro drop in fibre broadband price attracted 400k customers

Cutting fibre optic broadband prices by just €1 (87p) has resulted in customer numbers rising by 400,000 across Europe since the final quarter of 2009, according to Quantum-Web.

Tariff analysis from the organisation turned up strong evidence to suggest that European consumers are highly sensitive to the pricing of super-fast broadband packages.

Between the final three months of 2009 and the corresponding period in 2012, the number of fibre optic broadband customers in Europe rose from 12.7 million to more than 22 million.

Over the same timescale, the average residential fibre broadband price was slashed from €59 to €35.

Quantum-Web discovered several factors that have an impact on the "price elasticity" of demand for super-fast broadband, including the availability of substitutes such as cable, 3G and 4G.

Permanent or temporary price changes, including promotions on recurring and non-recurring costs and subsidies to extend fibre optic broadband coverage, were also found to have an effect.