Chapter 3. The ICT Price Basket ( # ,(- +((($ ## $ %,# 6$# (\"( )C $($3\" ## ,(( ;%+;, % $3\" (% , 3 ) ( - % ( 3 $+ # ( % # % $ ( ( ) $ \"# $ $3\") # ($ \"+$ 3($ 9 \"( $ $ , ##( ( + ## % + % $ ) E+,( ,((, ,( +$ $ $ ,(((- 3 /=-60)>) (-3 $## ( $ , (+ 3+ % $ ) , + ,(\"(($ ( \"( (## +): ( , (- + ( +$# $ (( % % \"): 6$,(% %%3% $ $ ##, (,# 6$,I$ (E$%# G ,( ( \"9 +# % $ $$) ( ,% % +(% $ $3\"( \" % # ,(( ( $ # ( ,%# $ %+ ( =-60)>) 4((( \" %3 ,# ( +$$+ % # ,. ( $ # (- $ #% ( 3 \" 9$ ) 3.3 ICT Price Basket results and analysis ( # ( 1 -3 $ %0)) 3 \" ( -,((% ( $ # 86$( +,% $( + 86% % ) * % # 8 \" %(\"(\"(): ,( $ ## $ \" Box 3.2: Prepaid services: not always more expensive than postpaid subscriptions Prepaid is the subscription service of choice for the majority of today’s mobile-cellular subscribers: by the end of 2010, around 70 per cent of the world’s mobile-cellular subscriptions were prepaid. Prepaid services usually do not tie customers to a contract or a monthly subscription fee and therefore often promise greater freedom of use and choice of operators. They protect mobile operators from unpaid bills, since services are paid for in advance. On the other hand, prepaid services do not necessarily cost the same (price per minute, or per sms), since they do not provide operators with a fixed revenue stream, and flexibility and freedom are usually sold at a higher price – at least, per minute. Using the example of the Republic of Korea, a comparison was carried out to show how prepaid and postpaid tariffs compare in terms of the IPB’s mobile-cellular sub-basket: The Republic of Korea, like a number of other countries, has very few prepaid subscriptions – less than 1.5 per cent. Al-though into account the monthly subscription charge (KRW 12 000 for postpaid customers only) reveals that the prepaid basket (at USD 14.4) is actually cheaper than the same basket using the postpaid tariffs (which would amount to USD 16.7). The example from the Republic of Korea shows that, for low-end users, prepaid services are more interesting than postpaid services, and that the choice of prepaid services for the IPB does not necessarily disadvantage countries. What may pena-lize countries that display intensive use of ICT services is the fact that the IPB is based on an entry-level or low-user basket. Operators in developed countries, in particular, offer relatively cheap (per minute) prices for high-end users. For example, in the United States, a fixed monthly subscription of USD 39.99 gives subscribers 450 minutes of free calls, which translates into only USD 0.09 per minute, compared to the USD 0.25 that customers pay when they subscribe to the entry-level prepaid plan.17 In Austria, a EUR 8.80 monthly subscription comes with 1 000 free minutes of calls, which effectively brings down the per-minute price to EUR 0.009, compared to EUR 0.07 for the prepaid tariff.18 the price per minute and per sms for prepaid services is more expensive (KRW 288 instead of KRW 108 for calls, and KRW 22 instead of KRW 20 per sms), a comparison that takes 56