Tuesday, January 3, 2023 | 10:45 a.m.
In order to be in line with the price agreements closed with other sectors and with the official inflation expectations for the coming months, the Government determined changes in the increases that had already been established for fixed and mobile telephony services, Internet and cable and satellite television.
According to Resolution 2494/2022 -published this Tuesday in the Official Gazette- fixed and mobile telephony, Internet and cable television services will have increases of 4% in January, 4% in February, 3.5% in March and finally 3.5% in April of this year. These increases will replace those that had been provided for in a previous resolution, which contemplated 9.8% in February and 7.8% in April.
In the text of the resolution it was explained that the change in the increases authorized for the telecommunications sector was made to “make it compatible” with the current economic policy and with the price agreements signed by the Ministry of Commerce: of medicines with the pharmaceutical sector , clothing, footwear, companies producing basic industrial inputs. “It corresponds to adapt the increases duly authorized by said policies established in those agreements,” said the new resolution.
“The National Communications Entity (Enacom) aligns itself with the policies implemented by the Government and executed by the Ministry of Economy, in order to order prices and bring predictability and relief to Argentines, to ensure access to something as fundamental as the Services involved here and we proceed in line with the path of reducing inflation”, said the resolution signed by the head of the organization, Claudio Ambrosini.
Within the framework of the pandemic, the Government of Alberto Fernández made the decision to consider telecommunications and Internet services as public services and to regulate their increases in 2020. The measure was taken through DNU 690, which is still in force and which declared telecommunications as essential public services. The large telephone companies went to court and in 2021 obtained a precautionary measure that allowed them to make increases above what was authorized by Enacom.
In October of last year, Telecom Argentina obtained a favorable resolution from the Federal Administrative Court No. 8, which decided to extend the validity of the precautionary measure for six months. Some time before, Telefónica had also obtained a similar extension.
Since telephone, Internet and cable television services began to be considered as regulated public services, the increases authorized by the Government were between 5% and 8% in January 2021; then, 7.5% in February, 2.5% in March and 5% in July. In 2022, there were increases of 9.8% in January, 9.5% in May and July, 19.8% in October and finally 9.8% last December.
The new resolution also established maximum values for mobile communications. For Mobile Communications services in the prepaid modality:
– Recharge 50 MB of mobile data per day: $41.04 in January; $42.68 in February; $44.18 in March; $45.72 in April (tax included)
– Second of voice: $0.63 in January, $0.65 in February; $0.68 in March; $0.70 in April (tax included)
– SMS: $8.21 in January; $8.54 in February; $8.84 in March; $9.14 in April (tax included)
Enacom highlighted that due to the greater penetration of the prepaid mobile service modality -especially in a segment with fewer resources- which in many cases represents the only possibility of connectivity, lower prices should be privileged for this sector of the population.
