Montenegro Orders Cut in High Internet Prices

The largest internet service provider in Montenegro, Crnogorski Telekom, has been ordered to slash its prices by about a third over the next few weeks.

The company, which became part of Deutsche Telecom following privatization 10 years ago, will have to cut the price of its internet services by 25 per cent from November 1 and by 35 per cent from December 1.

The director of the Agency for Electronic Communications, Zoran Sekulic, on Tuesday said the regulator found that Telecom's participation in the broadband market was close to a monopoly, and its internet prices were too high in relation to the cost of providing the service.

He said the government was now considering setting up it own internet service provider in order to offer citizens cheaper internet access.

The cheapest package currently provided by Crnogorski Telekom in Montenegro costs around 20 euro per month. The average price in the EU is 13 to 15 euro. 

"We were more expensive than either the region or the EU. This is because these countries have more than one internet provider, which is why the government is considering establishing its own internet service provider," Sekulic told the media.

According to a global survey on the number of active internet users, Montenegro has around 365,000 active internet users, which is more than half of the total population.