Slovakia does not have virtual operators, so prices are high

Virtual operators are relatively common in Western Europe. Slovakia is one of the last countries to have none. There are brands such as Radosť, FunFón or Juro, but behind these “virtual” operators there is always one of the big Slovak operators.

Slovakia has high prices compared to the EU

There are no full-fledged virtual operators who could use existing networks and offer services to end customers under their own brand in Slovakia. As a result, the competition is focused on only four major operators, which is negatively reflected in prices for customers.

According to the press release Chcemsivyberat.sk, retail chains, energy suppliers and football clubs, for example, offer their services abroad.

We have only recently published an article on our website, which says that data in Slovakia are among the most expensive in the European Union. Analyzes by the European Commission from 2018, 2019 and 2020 point to high prices of mobile services in Slovakia. In the ranking of the British portal Cable.co.uk, Slovakia ranked 161st among 230 countries.

The Civic Initiative I Want to Choose therefore launches a petition for creating the conditions for the emergence of virtual operators. The aim of the petition is to achieve the same situation in Slovakia as in most EU countries.

„Undoubtedly, greater market opening is putting pressure on prices and helping to innovate, as we saw more than a decade ago with the liberalization of the energy market, which has allowed customers to choose between several electricity and gas distributors. Unfortunately, in the field of mobile services, we have not yet seen a similar situation in Slovakia, although, for example, the first virtual operator was established in the United Kingdom in 1999.“

Michal Rybárik, one of the initiators of the civic initiative I want to choose.