It's no surprise to mobile phone users in Greece when they get their monthly bills, but the country is near the top of the chart for mobile data costs in the 27-member European Union, a report by the European Commission found.

The survey on the digital economy said once another telecom provider operates in the country that the rates could come down substantially as so far there are only three, Cosmote, Wind and Vodafone, leading to little competition between them.

The study, by the Commission DG-Comp competition watchdog, relied on the Finland-based independent study and consulting firm Rewheel to gauge the costs of connectivity in Greece, as part of two sector-wide studies on e-commerce and Fintech, said the business newspaper Naftemporiki.

According to the study, mobile phone prices in Greece are also among the least-competitive among the 37 members of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD.)

Greece's three mobile phone providers offer similar rates, leaving customers little choice and without plans for unfettered access to the Internet, leaving them to use their home modem to connect, but limited outside. 

The companies control the landline market and terrestrial-based subscriber television.  Deutsche Telekom now controls Cosmote.

Vodafone said the study was a "mishmash of inaccuracies, completely erroneous information and baseless references, which not only have no basis in reality but lead a reader to a wrong conclusion, as well as undermining Greece's digital leap forward…" but it wasn't reported if they disputed what it charges its customers.