Table of contents
WHICH REVENUES are subject to contribution requirements?
In general, all revenues earned in Austria from the provision of communication services and the operation of communications networks are subject to financial contribution requirements.
The regulatory authority has written a guideline in order to help companies identify revenues subject to financial contribution requirements; however, as its name suggests, this document only provides a set of guidelines and can not be regarded as exhaustive or conclusive.
All surveys and calculations are based on net revenues (i.e., net of VAT).
GUIDELINES for identifying revenues subject to financial contribution requirements
- The following list of types of revenues to be included when calculating the financing contribution is not exhaustive; rather, this document is intended to provide guidance. The categorisation of relevant services essentially follows the structure used in the eRTR portal under “Service Administration – Notification of Communication Services and Networks” (general authorisations).
- In some cases, individual items may overlap. RTR-GmbH therefore explicitly emphasises that in such cases, any reported revenue should only be counted once. The risk of double counting exists in particular between revenues from the provision of public voice communication services and revenues from public Internet access services (fixed/mobile).
- All revenues must be reported as net revenues, i.e. excluding sales VAT
- According to the legal basis¹ for the collection of financing contributions, all revenues generated within Austria from the provision of telecommunications services must be included in the calculation. This means that internal revenues, i.e., revenues generated between economically affiliated but legally independent companies must also be taken into account. In contrast, to the Cartel Act, no economic considerations are to be taken into account for the calculation.
- In this context, please note that on 25 March 2025, the reportable service categories in the telecommunications sector were aligned with the Telecommunications Act 2021 (TKG 2021). As a result, new designations and new classifications must now be used for the respective categories.
- A comparison of the old and new categories (TKG 2003 and TKG 2021) as well as further information on the adjustments can be found at: https://www.rtr.at/agg2025
The following revenues from public fixed number-based interpersonal communication services (NB-ICS fixed) or mobile number-based interpersonal communication services (NB-ICS mobile) and related services (at the retail and wholesale level) are subject to a financing contribution in any case:
Fixed number-based interpersonal communication service (NB-ICS fixed) – former telephone service at fixed locations
- Revenues from basic charges for public voice communication services
- Revenues from the installation of subscriber connections
- Revenues from connection charges (including online services and revenues from public payphones)
- Revenues from Voice over IP voice communication services
- Revenues from telephone shops (call shops)
- End customer revenues/reselling revenues from the sale of calling cards (excluding revenues from the distribution of calling cards if this is not subject to notification)
- Revenues from the sale of minutes (reselling)
- Revenues from origination, termination, and transit
- Revenues from additional services (e.g., caller ID, call forwarding, revenues from number portability, etc.)
- Revenues from other charges² s (e.g., reactivation of the connection after a block)
Mobile number-based interpersonal communication service (NB-ICS mobile) – former mobile telephone service
- Revenues from activation fees, basic and connection charges for voice (including SMS, MMS, roaming)
- Revenues from the sale of minutes (reselling)
- Revenues from origination, termination, and transit
- Revenues from national roaming, international roaming, and the sale of airtime
- Revenues from additional services (e.g., caller ID, call forwarding, voicemail, revenues from number portability, etc.)
- Revenues from other charges² (e.g., service fees, SIM card blocking, additional SIM cards, cell phone support, etc.)
The following revenues from public fixed Internet access services (IAS fixed) and/or mobile Internet access services (IAS mobile) at the wholesale and retail level are subject to a financing contribution in any case:
- Revenues³ from the provision of Internet access, regardless of the technology used, including roaming
- Revenues³ from the transmission and transfer of data, regardless of the technology used, including roaming
- Revenues³ from the provision of transmission and transfer capacities, regardless of the technology used, including roaming
- Revenues³ from the provision of facilities for transmitting and transferring data, including roaming
- Revenues from the provision of communications networks (layer 1 – infrastructure in multi-layer models)
- Revenues from the operation of communications networks (layer 2 – network operation in multi-layer models)
- Revenues from the provision of communications services (layer 3 – services in multi-layer models)
Furthermore, revenues from data transmission services at both the wholesale and retail level are also subject to financing contributions. In this context, please note that rental services now also fall under this category of data transmission services.
Examples include revenues from the provision of transmission capacities at the wholesale level that are not classified as public Internet access services (for example point-to-multipoint links, certain Ethernet products, special customer locations with indoor coverage service and so forth) or M2M transmission services.
The following revenues from the former category "public leased line services" (retail and wholesale level) are in any case subject to a financing contribution in the category of data transmission services:
- Revenues from production fees, ongoing fees, and other fees for national data transmission services
- Revenues from international data transmission services, provided that at least one end is located in Austria
- Direct-access connections from customers to their own network
Roaming services
This category exclusively includes wholesale services that enable other providers to offer roaming services to their end users on ships, aircraft, or in campus networks. Austrian providers offering roaming abroad to their end users, and foreign providers offering roaming in Austria to their end users, do not fall under this category. For Austrian providers, roaming is included in the NB-ICS category.
For clarification: Examples of non-financeable revenues
In addition, here are some examples of revenues that are currently not subject to financing.
Example: Value-added component of value-added services
This refers to the portion of a service paid for by end customers (destination network pricing) that ultimately remains with the service provider (content component). Other services related to value-added services, such as the setup of service numbers or the origination or any transit services, are subject to financing contributions in the same way as routing services.
Accordingly, in the case of information services, only the part of the origination, the setup in another network, the termination service, and any call forwarding services are subject to a financing contribution, but not the content component.
Other services not subject to financing contributions:
Only examples can be given here:
- NI-ICS (number-independent interpersonal communication service)
- Provision of IT backup services
- Consulting, marketing services, compilation of statistics
- Mobile phone configuration service
- Payment solutions
- Surcharge for SMS payments (e.g., for donations) to cover the collection risk
- Pure cloud services
- Revenues share from pre-installments of apps
- Commissions for accessory products sold in shops
- Rental for a telephone system (including cloud telephone systems provided that NO voice communication service is included)
- Insurance for end devices
- and so forth
¹ Section 34 KommAustria Act, Federal Law Gazette I 32/2001, as amended.
² The total revenues must be stated. If not all of the revenues resulting from this title is wholly or predominantly attributable to the provision of communications services (in accordance with Section 4(4) TKG 2021), please indicate which portions of the revenues are not attributable to this, including a justification.
³ The total revenues must be stated. If not all of the revenues resulting from this title is wholly or predominantly attributable to the provision of communications services (in accordance with Section 4(4) TKG 2021), please indicate which portions of the revenues are not wholly or predominantly attributable to the provision of communications services, including a justification. This may be the case, for example, with bundled products or additional services such as the provision of storage capacity for websites or fees for software that are not directly related to the transmission of data.
As of 11/2025
HOW HIGH is the threshold for financial contribution requirements?
Below a certain level, the administrative costs involved in collection are higher than the financial contributions actually collected. As a result, the regulatory authority introduced a revenue threshold. The revenue threshold was set at EUR 300,-- finance contribution per year. This revenue treshold will be adjusted annually to reflect the development of the consumer price index. In cases where a company subject to the financial contribution requirement generates revenues below the threshold level, that company's revenues are not included in the calculation of overall industry revenues, and no financial contribution is required.
HOW are financial contributions CALCULATED?
The basis for financial contributions collected by RTR is the budget for the current business year. RTR's projected revenues are subtracted from its projected expenses, and federal funding amounts are deducted from the balance. The remaining amount, which is subject to a maximum limit under Austrian law, is covered by financial contributions.
In the past, financial contributions have been in the range of thousandths of each company's revenues.
What should a company do if it plans to stop carrying out activities subject to financial contribution requirements?
This must be reported to the regulatory authority in writing.
If you require additional details, please write to us at finanzierungsbeitrag@rtr.at
Currently data for projected revenues 2026 is required.
For details of the process for Planned and Actual Revenue data please visit Financial contribution.