Mobile Telephony: Price reductions and data multiplication are coming

In accordance with "Nation of SundaySubscribers will see either their monthly account decrease or the services provided and especially their data multiply.

Σhand for you and possibly and Direct reductions in the contracts of the mobile telephony companies, but also an increase -up to doubling- of the offered data per connection package is being processed and is expected to be announced in the first ten days of December, after the clear urging of both the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the competent Minister. Kyriakou Pierrakaki, to telecommunications providers to reduce high data charges.

Discussions are now at a very advanced stage and in the coming days, as announced by the government spokesman, Stelios Petsas, the relevant announcements will be made for the commitment of the companies in the rationalization of the tariffs downwards. Of course, as all the parties involved point out in "Ethnos tis Kyriakis", it is impossible for this move to relate to a horizontal decline, the same for each provider, given that it is a self-regulating free market, while there is a critical competitor. of companies and the "thorn" of the over-taxation of the sector.

However, it will be a significant breather, which will either reduce the final amount paid byMobile subscribers each month, or will multiply the services provided and especially the use of data at the same charge. This implies an indirect reduction in contracts, as consumers will be covered by lower-priced contracts that are expected to offer more data.

In any case, it is certain that the commercial policy of the companies will be updated, as the planned duplication of the provided data, even if it is decided to be followed initially by a single provider that will decide to "sacrifice" its revenue. user, will inevitably entice the rest for competition reasons. What is taken for granted, as is clear from competent lips, is that the changes are expected to apply to both old and new contracts.

Pressures

To achieve this, the relevant recommendations from the ministry have been exercised for months in the industry, which in turn has been complaining about the over-taxation of its services, which has proven to be one of the highest in the world. reaching up to 49% of the total charge depending on the consumption and significantly affecting demand as it "punishes" greater use.

Although the issues of reducing the high tax on mobile telephony were not resolved with the tax bill, the government "listens" to the request, with Mr. Pierrakakis admitting in a recent statement that taxes are indeed high and although they are not For specific announcements and schedules, the issue has already been considered and understood by the government: "The better the economic situation, the more the budget pillow is created, the more tax deductions there are, where appropriate."

This is certainly not so simple, given that any tax relief will probably need to be offset by compensatory measures, as the industry's annual taxation is a significant injection into public coffers. At the same time, the industry seems to have been "relieved" considerably by the rapid adoption of the provisions for the simplification and acceleration of the licensing of antenna systems.

This seems to have been one of the main levers of pressure for mobile companies to consider redefining tariffs downwards. At the same time, the minister promised that he would push the European Commission to change the Data Comparison Methodology, which to some extent would change the degree of negative ranking of Greece. And that's why, despite that Greece is arguably more expensive than most European countries in terms of data charging, but also one of the slowest in connection speeds, the relevant comparisons of the Commission do not correspond exactly to reality.

The reason is the fact that in the case of our country the data for the charges are received from the official price lists of the companies, with the difference that the subscribers finally pay lower amounts, since further discounts are made on the contract renewals. At the same time, these data do not take into account the offers made by all companies, with free data on holidays, weekends, etc., but also the lowest fixed charges offered by some providers for unlimited data, e.g. the summer Psines.

Also note that lately many subscribers are receiving updates to increase the data available for consumption Inside the existing package they have agreed.

Nevertheless, the request for a charge reduction is still pending. "Data values ​​must fall, because it is a matter of democracy, access and acceleration of the country," said the Minister of Digital Government, adding that "obviously in Shifting the country's position qualitatively ".

For their part, the heads of companies also leave open the possibility of price reductions. Already the president and CEO of OTE, Michalis Chayaz, in his position at the Infocom conference, noted that "from the moment the state comes with such a request that says" contribute too ", take it into account, discuss it with the minister. the wishes of the Prime Minister and plan similar actions ".

The position of Greece

The high charges in Greece are reflected in the study presented by IOBE last week and which was conducted on behalf of the Association of Mobile Telephony Companies (EEKT). According to the study, our country is ranked as the 10th cheapest among the countries of the European Union in the pre-tax charges, but after the inclusion of the taxes, it automatically "climbs" to the 6th most expensive position in Europe.

According to researchers, the main reason is high taxation. Greece has the highest total taxation of mobile telephony services in the EU, with cumulative charges ranging between 39% and 49% of the final charge. The practice of taxation of mobile services is not found in other EU countries, with the exception of Hungary and Malta in particular.

It is also emphasized that a reduction or abolition of the special fee on mobile communications would lead to a reduction in connection costs. According to the results of the IOBE analysis, the use of data from mobile communications has a statistically significant and negative correlation with the price for the specific service. At the same time, based on the moderate scenario examined by the Scholars, it is estimated that the benefit for the Greek economy, in terms of GDP, from a possible doubling of data consumption, from the current level, could reach up to 2,6. or contribute 1,4% to GDP.

Compensation for reduced connection speeds

Billing is not the only complaint of subscribers, many of whom rarely manage to catch the speeds of connection - mainly from fixed networks - which they have agreed with their providers, as significant discrepancies are still recorded. and actual speeds. According to the Open Internet Report 2018-2019, the Internet in our country is still moving slowly, with the average speed being around 40% of the offered nominal download speed and 72% of the nominal data sending speed.

That is why EETT issued a directive to the providers, which, among other things, stipulates that the speed guarantee must be offered to all subscribers, while the terms of provision and use must include the guaranteed speed performance, the compensations it receives the subscriber in case of deviations from the guaranteed speed but also the control procedure by the subscriber. The directive, in fact, gives thirty days to internet service providers who already offer speed-up programs to comply.

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