Telecoms prices rise 1.9% between January, July – Anacom
The country's communications regulator (Anacom) said that telecommunication prices in Portugal increased 1.9% between January and July.
Telecommunication prices in Portugal increased 1.9% between January and July, according to Anacom, which attributes this increase to the growth of bundled monthly fees.
The communications regulator also said that between the end of 2009 and July 2021, telecoms prices had risen 8.4% in Portugal. In France, they fell 22.1%, in Italy 17.1% and in Spain, they also fell, in this case by 8.7%. In the European Union (EU) average, they fell in that period by 9.7%.
In Portugal in July alone, telecommunication prices rose 0.3% on the previous month due to changes in some bundled offers. Compared to the same month of the previous year, prices increased by 1.3%.
In July, the average variation rate of telecommunication prices in Portugal was 0.5 percentage points lower than in the EU. The country with the biggest price increase was Poland (5.8%) and the country with the biggest decrease was Denmark (-3.6%).
According to Anacom, its report ‘Evolution of Telecommunication Prices’, released today, indicates that in July the minimum monthly fees are offered by NOWO in seven cases out of a total of 13 services/offers, while MEO presented the lowest monthly fees for four types of services/offers, Vodafone for two and NOS for one.
Year-on-year, in July, there were 31 price increases and three price decreases. Anacom attributes the rise in minimum monthly fees to the end of some operators’ services or offers.
For example, the minimum monthly fee of the Mobile Phone Service with internet increased 4.3% due to the elimination of NOWO’s offer with a five euro monthly fee. The minimum monthly fee of the 5P offer (‘quintuple play’) increased 4.3% due to the elimination of the first monthly fee offer from Vodafone’s base service, the minimum monthly fee of TVS increased 30.8% after the end of the commercialisation of an offer by NOS, the minimum monthly fee of Mobile Broadband, via PC/Tablet, increased 4.3% with the elimination of the first monthly fee offer from MEO’s base service.
Anacom said that in May 2021, British Lycamobile launched a mobile service offer, which is below prices practised by this same provider in other markets, but it is quite attractive compared to the offers of the main providers in Portugal, as for mobile data caps starting from 10 GB, the monthly fee of this Lycamobile offer is substantially lower.
On the other hand, Anacom said that for similar levels of monthly fees, the traffic offered by the other providers is significantly lower.
