I think you are probably right. My conclusions were mostly from what I experienced or heard... i.e. very anecdotal. First I should have been clear that by Euro

I think you are probably right. My conclusions were mostly from what I experienced or heard... i.e. very anecdotal. First I should have been clear that by Europe I meant EU. And also I still think there's a lot of bad tariffs here too. I haven't checked in many countries but the 2-3 I've been to or checked had similar deals (though in Italy for example pay as you go is way more popular than contract, and in the UK is the opposite). But I think some of the better deals may have been the result of regulatory pressure. For example every other year the EU commission sets lower prices for inter-state roaming.