Skip to main content

German Mobile Operators Await Soccer Fans

Visiting supporters will spend a combined total of EUR 36.5 million on mobile calls, text and video messages during this month's FIFA World Cup, according to research from Informa Telecoms & Media.

There will be more than one million football fans attending the World Cup in Germany and we estimate that each person will generate an average of EUR 36.50 roaming charges during their stay.

"Recent price cuts announced by operators such as Orange and Vodafone are going to benefit fans of teams inside the European Union but it's worth remembering that 21 of the teams in the tournament are from non-European countries. They will be paying a lot more to call home than European supporters. A Brazilian fan will be charged as much as EUR 3.50 per minute to call Brazil from Germany - three times what it will cost a European supporter. Many may opt for purchasing local SIM cards or other alternative roaming solutions, as advocated by tourist boards and some mobile operators," says Mark Newman, Chief Research Officer at Informa Telecoms & Media.

The assessment is based on roaming usage patterns and pricing trends in retail and wholesale roaming prices that are examined in the forthcoming report published by Informa Telecoms & Media. A typical roamer is expected to send 8 text messages, make 10 voice calls, generate a single data session, possibly to send an MMS, and receive 6 calls during their visit.

Popular posts from this blog

The Billions Bet on Tentative AI Demand

Gartner's latest worldwide IT spending forecast exposes a trend every CIO has already felt in budget negotiations. Total spending will climb 14.2 percent in 2026, reaching $6.37 trillion. It seems that the IT infrastructure market is simply having a strong year. However, the more useful insight is how unevenly that growth is distributed. The Headline Number vs. The Real Story Data center systems and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) are absorbing capital at a pace several multiples faster than devices, communications services, and traditional IT services. This is not incremental growth spread across a healthy portfolio. It is a wholesale reallocation of enterprise technology budgets toward AI infrastructure, made on the expectation that demand for AI workloads will justify the outlay before that demand has been fully proven. Where the Money is Going Data center systems are forecast to grow 62.5 percent in 2026, that's up from 51.6 percent growth in 2025, reaching $822 billion....