Government proposes 80% reduction in access fees to mobile telephony

The government presented its proposal to set the mobile tariffs that will govern the sector between 2019 and 2024. The decision of the authority already provides for a difficult dispute between the dominant (Movistar and Entel) and the competitors ( Wom and VTR, in addition to Claro) the prices that will govern the sector over the next five years.

Through the Undersecretariat of Telecommunications (Subtel), access charges, which were billed by a telephone company, decreased on average by about 80%. to another for terminating a call on his network and representing approximately 95% of the final rate.

According to the law, access fees are set every five years and the last process carried out in 2014 has resulted in a reduction. 73%. Today, the average is $ 8.76 per minute

For the current process, Subtel has proposed an average access fee of $ 1.5 per minute, which aims to create more competition in the area. [19659004] Subtel released the "Report on Objections and Counterproposals", which is the statement made by the Ministries of Transport, Telecommunications and the Economy on the tariff proposals submitted by the dealers.

In the absence of agreement between the undersecretary and the companies, the latter can seek the opinion of a commission of experts. The idea is that the decrees be ready on January 25, 2019.

However, a difficult battle is already planned.

Movistar and Entel, which dominate this market with a participation of more than 60%, proposed a reduction of about 35% on average. In the case of the company based in Madrid, Spain, an access fee of $ 5.88 per minute was proposed, while the family-related company Hurtado and Matte proposed that the figure be raised to $ 5.71. per minute. . According to the two companies, a sharp drop in access charges would lead to a reduction in investment, which would result in poor quality of services provided to users.

For its part, Claro, VTR and Wom recorded an average decline of 94%. in the access fees. In the case of the Mexican tycoon-linked operator Carlos Slim, it offered $ 1.27 a minute, while the last two phone companies went further and demanded a 0.16 access fee and $ 0.22 respectively.

] For these companies, a lower amount will create increased competition in the industry, which will result in lower prices for subscribers.

These three companies, because of their reduced subscriber base, have to spend more resources on access charges, unlike Movistar and Entel executives.

The pricing process, as stated by the authority, is purely technical. However, if experts are appointed (companies appoint an expert, Subtel with another and a third party by mutual agreement), it is expected that the negotiations will involve intense efforts to the part of certain actors to enforce their rights.

In this case, it is estimated that Subtel's proposal could increase by about $ 1 per minute, with which the final rate would be about $ 3 per minute.

Effects on customers [19659016] According to March's figures this year, nearly 58% of mobile subscribers, or about 13.7 million users, belong to the prepaid services segment; that is to say that they have not contracted a business plan with a company. These customers will benefit the most from the discounted rates since they pay on average about $ 60 per minute.

Similarly, it is expected that customers holding a contract, of just over $ 10 million, would also be favored by the increased competition would be generated by a reduction access fees.

Among the most expensive of the OECD

Chile is among the 10 markets in the OECD where prices for telephony and the mobile Internet are the highest.
Last year, the club of the richest countries in the world developed new methods for comparing the retail tariffs of telecommunication services in order to evaluate the price levels paid by consumers. consumers in the member countries.
broadband service and mobile voice of an average user (with power-of-purchase calculations and with May 2017 figures), the OECD basket has a average value of 29.78 USD, including VAT.
Emburgo tops the ranking with the lowest rate: 9.85 USD, while Greece closes the list with a price of 82.84 USD.
In the case of Chile, the basket value for an average user is from 41.32 US dollars, which includes a 3GB data package and up to 600 minutes to talk to from a mobile phone.