The desire for regulation, registered in almost all sectors of the economy of the Alberto Fernández administration, had in the application of precautionary measures in judicial offices, its main brake. In the case of the telecommunications market, it happens exactly in this way.
After the decree of President Alberto Fernández of August 21, 2020 that declared cell phones, the Internet and TV as “essential services”, which in practice means that companies in the sector must request authorization from State officials for any variation in their tariff values, The companies appealed the measure in the Justice, raising the unconstitutionality of the decree.
While the judges analyze the constitutional criteria with which the head of the Executive Branch decided to move forward with the regulation of the telcos market, sThey suspended the application of the controversial decree until the underlying issue is defined. The constitutionality or not of the measure.
Companies and Government define increases in telephony, cable and internet
Since the first injunction in favor of the companies was produced in February 2021, the court decisions were renewed every six months until now, which It has allowed Enacom’s recent announcement of a staggered 17.6% stake between February and April of this year to become a dead letter.
Because according to associations of consumers and users who angrily claim on social networks, invoices are arriving with increases of more than 20%, only during the month of Januaryand in some provincial states the registered increases are 30%.
While the increase in the rates authorized by the Government, through Resolution 2393/2022 of December 29 published in the Official Gazette, establishes that licensees may apply a staggered quarterly increase of 17.6% for retail prices, taking as refer to the current values as of January 31, 2022, the invoices for Flow and Personal, from Telecom, arrived in Reyes, with increases of more than 20% while Movistar announced to its users that “as of 1/2/2023, the prices of all Mobile Services, TV and Digital Services will increase up to 23.4%. Internet per day $144 plus taxes,” according to a report. statement that arrived with the invoices from last December”.
The companies do not accept the resolution of the Government that regulates updates of the price of their services.
These are examples that are replicated throughout the country and that will cause extra pressure on the plans of the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, to continue with a “dynamic of permanent decline in inflation in the coming months.”
Of course it is about a market with big players but also very dynamic and made up of some 1,200 SMEs, small cable operators from the interior of the country, which invested dollars to offer Internet and there are also companies with sustained growth such as Iplan, Telecentro and Gigared.
The truth is that, from the gigantic Movistar, Claro and Telecom to the medium and small companies in the sector, they all reject the decree that prevents them from updating their rates as determined by the market.
Users claim for increases higher than those set by the Government
The injunctions allow them to disobey Enacom in this matter and, in Corrientes, for example, the newspaper Época reviewed complaints from users who explained that “In December the Gigared bill for internet and cable, discounted, for the first year as a customer, was $3,496 and in January it went up to $4,163.50.”
A Personal prepaid plan had new values from the beginning of 2023. For text messages it went from $12 to $14, and the voice call minute was changed from $48 to $56.
However, these values were modest compared to other users who live in Buenos Aires and received tickets with an increase of 21%. Alfonsina Vidal, is a Flow client, and I subscribe to her TV, Internet it rose from $8,451 in December to $10,140 in January.
Despite the cap on prices imposed by the Government, telephone users from all over the country demanded increases.
In Telecom they explained that these recorded increases are notified one month in advance, because “court rulings authorize freedom in the trade policy industry.”
Movistar, from the Spanish group Telefónica, leads the market with a customer portfolio of close to 21 million subscribers between lines and fixed and mobile connectivity. And, also, it provides television service.
Nearby is Telecom, which has subscriptions close to 20 million mobile customers, 3.5 million cable TV subscribers and 4.2 million broadband users.
And finally, Claro completes the podium with 1 million fiber optic customers but with close to 22 million mobile phone subscriptions.
This last company was the one that increased the least in practice, although, once again, it is recorded in the facts that, through precautionary measures, Telecommunications companies can adjust their prices upwards in an inflationary economy without paying attention to the permitted increases that Enacom officially announces.
