The telecoms market in Estonia is dominated by three providers: Elisa, Tele2, and Telia, and this "triopoly" has already been criticized for setting too-high prices to customers and for barring entry to the market to potential competitors.

According to Rasmus Nurk, head of Tele2's private customer unit, overheads and input prices are constantly changing. Electricity prices, the cost of electronic components, and everything else that the sector needs, have all been rising, he said.

"On the one hand, in such a highly competitive field as telecoms, it's of course welcome that the market regulates prices, but on the other hand you also have to look at what's happening around us," Nurk said.

Tele2, the smallest of the three players, says it plans to streamline its services and raise prices on packages that have fallen behind the times. Nurk noted that the changes will affect services broadly, but not the entire portfolio at once. The average price increase per customer at Tele2 will not exceed the €2-mark, per month, he said, although the perceived change may depend on how many services a customer has in their package.

"This certainly won't affect all customers, but rising input costs have impacted the entire company, be it internet, voice services, or television," Nurk went on.

Price changes cited by the other two operators are in a similar range. Elisa did not have time to comment on price changes in an interview with ERR, later providing a written statement that adjustments to its packages would average between €0.99 and €1.99 also.

Telia, the largest company, said it had already commented on the issue in December and currently has nothing to add. Last month, Telia announced a change to the monthly fee of its TV Mini package, which will rise from €8.13 to €9.95. Telia is also losing HBO streaming link.

As justification for the price increases, all three companies point to the need to continue investing in infrastructure and software development. Elisa said that a moderate price increase also helps meet expectations on employee wage growth and development of the 5G network and digital security. Telia explained its price changes primarily by rising acquisition costs for TV channels and entertainment, as well as other input costs in recent years.

Tele2 says it is informing customers of price changes personally, and on a rolling basis. Nurk noted that this is a normal procedure in the service sector, where the intersection of supply and demand regulates prices.

"I would encourage all customers to review their prices regularly and make price comparisons," he added.

At the same time, fewer number transfers, or operator switches, were initiated at Tele2 in 2025 than in the previous year, which Nurk put down to customers having internalized the price increases.

"Customer initiative seems to be on a downward trend. Apparently these price increases have been accepted by customers, and they understand the direction that service prices need to be modernized," Nurk said.

A government bill would, if it passes into law, allow telecoms customers to switch suppliers in as little time as 15 minutes, compared with the several days taken at present. This is in part aimed at stopping a customer's existing provider undercutting an offer from a rival firm, on the grounds that this revised lower price is the "true" figure that customer should have been charged from the outset.

A little under two years ago, Tele2 reported 2023 revenues in Estonia of €61.71 million, Elisa €226 million, while Telia had the highest figure at €361 million.

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