The Government authorized this Thursday new increases for pay television, telephone and internet services. It did so through Enacom, a body which established that licensees can apply a staggered increase of up to 17.6% in the retail prices, taking as reference the values in force on 31 January 2023.
According to resolution 2393/2022, published in the Official Gazette signed by Claudio Ambrosini, president of this body, the increase will be up to 9.8% from 1 February and up to 7.8% from 1 April of the same year .
These figures will regulate, according to the legislation, “for the concessionaires of Mobile Communication Services (SCM), as well as for those of Internet Access Value Added Services (SVA-I), Fixed Telephony Services (STF), Radio Broadcasting Services in Subscription via physical or radio-electric connection (SRSVFR) and Audiovisual Communication Services for Subscription Broadcasting via satellite connection (DTH)”.
The Resolution established that “any increase in retail prices eventually applied by the ICT or DTH (Satellite TV) Service Concessionaires and which exceeds the values expressly authorized by the Resolutions mentioned in the previous articles or in the present one, must be reimbursed to its users on the next invoice to be issued, with update and interest subject to the same interest rate that they apply to their customers for late payment of invoices”.
He also clarified that “in cases where a user does not pay his bill with increases higher than those authorized, the suppliers will have to refrain from calculating the terms of the law in force to proceed with the suspension of the service” and will not be able to calculate the arrears on the invoices.
As regards telephony in prepaid mode, it has been established that starting from February 1, 2023, the top-up value of 50 megabits (MB) of mobile data per day will cost $43.40, that the second of voice will cost $0.66 $ and that the SMS will be worth $8.70 each, in all cases including tax. On April 1, meanwhile, these values will rise to $46.80, $0.72 and $9.40, respectively.
In 2022, Enacom had already authorized two 9.5% surcharges applied respectively to invoices from 1st May and 1st July. New increases of 19.8% on 1 October and 9.8% on 1 December were then added.
Because pay television, telephony and the internet are increasing
As stated by the Government in the preamble to the provision, it warned that after that latest increase, it came to the conclusion that it was appropriate to allow the new increases after having “assessed the economic context” and the “difficulties” that “all the players involved, suppliers and user audiences”.
“The requirements for the new increases are based on the higher costs and the impact of fluctuations in the main economic variables in the operations of the Concessionaires in the months that have passed since the beginning of the regulation of retail prices”, it was officially argued.
Furthermore, it was added that “the analysis of the various requests for increases in retail prices together with the subsequent fluctuations of the main economic variables affecting the costs, especially in the case of small and medium-sized suppliers, allows us to verify the need raised from the ICT services and satellite TV sector, given the marked differences in response in their operational and financial capabilities”.
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Source: Clarin
