Czechs Pay More Than Rich Countries – Annual Cost Increases

The high prices of mobile services in the Czech Republic have been a topic that has been discussed for more than a decade and – although political proclamations have been made many times in the past from various parties – changes are not coming much for the better. Compared to other European countries, our operators approach the discounting of services quite cautiously, and when ParlamentníListy.cz, following the suggestions of many readers looked at the offer here and abroadfound that not only the often inflected Poland overtook us.

As part of mapping the services that multinational companies provide on the Czech market, the editors discovered that cheaper tariffs can be used even in countries where the purchasing power is higher than here. The comparison then showed that the offer of Czech operators – which some economists describe as a functional oligopoly – is in some respects superior to Austrian competition or tariffs with larger volumes of data, calls and SMS included in the price in Germany.

It could thus be expected that mobile operators operating in the Czech Republic will try to eliminate the price disparity and gradually reduce the price of their services. However, the opposite is true.

All three operators have decided to raise prices in 2026, and all brands have already sent or are sending e-mails and SMS messages to many clients informing them that they are increasing the prices of their services. What do people get extra for it? Sometimes nothing at all, and more and more in the Czech Republic mobile operator services are starting to use a modified saying: “less music for more money”.

“We are part of the critical infrastructure of the Czech Republic,” Vodafone asks for more money

The current wave of mobile service price hikes was started by Vodafone, which increased the prices of some customers at the beginning of December. The increase in prices that people first felt in the January bill concerned, for example, the Red Basic Lite tariff with 3 GB of data, the price of which the company raised from 567 crowns to 609 crowns, or the Red Basic+ tariff with 10 GB of data. People bought it for 697 crowns; however, they paid CZK 50 more in the January bill.

What did customers get extra for the increased price of services? Explanation Vodafone, that “millions of customers rely on their mobile network”, that it is “part of the critical infrastructure of the Czech Republic” and that the company “invests intensively in its speed and security”.

“Like other industries, we are also facing rising costs. Thanks to innovation and optimization, we have been able to maintain high quality and value of services for you over the past three years. However, higher costs and the mentioned investments in modernization now require us to adjust the prices of mobile services,” the operator said in an explanation to customers. For example, the data increase did not take place.

New customers will pay an extra CZK 3,600 at O2 compared to last year

Vodafone’s move comes just months after its many users were jolted out of their seats by operator O2, which changed tariffs for customers to new ones and added services to them during the change that they may not have been interested in. Canceling these unwanted services required a lot of activity on the part of the customer and led to many complaints. Last year, the operator came up with the Oneplay service, which, in addition to the content they were used to before, also offered the services provided by the Voyo video platform to clients. The catch was that even customers who didn’t care about it received it automatically – together with the invoice increased by unused services. In addition, when the affected people wanted to reject the change by e-mail, they did not follow through. O2 sent unsatisfied clients to a branch or offered them the opportunity to express their disagreement via the helpline.

It is O2 that is changing the tariffs even now, a month after the increase in price by Vodafone. However, compared to last year’s experience, people can relax that they won’t have to go to the branch if they don’t want the change, as it gives existing customers a choice whether to activate the new tariffs or not.

Unlike the rest of the operators, O2 offers compensation in the form of an increase in data volume or an increase in speed for the price increase, although some users in their reviews think that this is more of a cosmetic change. For the NEO+ Blue tariff, the data limit will be increased from 4 GB to 6 GB, and for NEO+ Bronze also by 2 GB to the new 14 GB. For the NEO+ Silver tariff, the speed increases from 10 Mb/s to 15 Mb/s, and people can expect a more significant change only from the NEO+ Gold tariff, where the speed will increase from 20 Mb/s to 40 Mb/s.

And the prices? These will increase in the case of the NEO+ Blue tariff by CZK 30 per month to CZK 629, and in higher tariffs such as NEO+ Silver with a speed of 15 Mb/s, by CZK 50 to CZK 999 per month. At the same time, however, the special offer that reduced some tariffs for the first 12 months has ended, which means that new customers will pay an extra 300 crowns per month compared to last year for the first 12 bills, which is already 3,600 CZK per year.

“We’re adding what customers really need – more data and higher speeds,” commented O2 mobile services director Silvia Cieslarová on the change in tariffs, adding that the operator “will enable customers to use even more fully the best mobile network in the Czech Republic”.

T-Mobile wants more, gives customers less

Even T-Mobile is not idle in raising prices. Unlike O2, existing customers do not have a choice and are faced with a choice: pay or go without mobile services.

This is not the first time that this operator has tried something similar on Czech customers. Three years ago, the company came up with an adjustment of tariffs, as part of which people automatically received new ones, often tens of crowns more expensive. Customers then had to request a change and choose from new alternatives if they wanted to save money and accepted the worse parameters of the offers. The operator did not allow them to continue drawing the old tariff for the same amount.

The increase in prices this time will not be avoided by customers who are used to regularly topping up their credit and used the Twist With Us tariff. This tariff allowed calls for CZK 3.90 per minute, while the new price will be CZK 4.50 per minute. One hundred minutes of calls will therefore be 60 crowns more expensive for people topping up their credit. “Effective from March 1, 2026, we are removing your current Twist With Us tariff from the offer due to the unification of our services. After this date, you will be transferred to the latest Twist Standard tariff,” T-Mobile customers are informed that they will not receive anything extra for the increased price of services. What’s more, the conditions for them to achieve the previously popular advantage have worsened.

At the beginning of February, T-Mobile also tightened the possibility of drawing top-up rewards, and although people can still get 2 GB of data or unlimited calls to numbers of this brand for 7 days, the amount of top-up from which the reward can be drawn is changing. While previously it was enough to top up the credit for 300 CZK, now the minimum amount is at least 400 CZK. At the same time, new bonuses do not take place.

ParlamentníListy.cz approached T-Mobile with the question of whether customers will receive any new benefits at least in the future due to the increased price of services; the company did not respond to this question.