The vice president of the National Communications Agency (Enacom), Gustavo Lopez, highlighted the government decision of “to incorporate he right to connectivity” with the implementation of the Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) 690 that defined the mobile and fixed telephony, internet and pay television as essential public services and in competition.
“The change in communications policy had two milestones in 2020: DNU 690 that incorporates the right to connectivity and changes in the delivery of non-returnable contributions (ANR) for the construction of networks,” said López. “Decree 690 marks an important change in policy because it incorporates the right to connectivity,” said the official, who recalled that these services “until now were a market good, when in practice the same local, provincial and national governments they told the citizen to do the procedure online. “
“They are essential services that only governed the rules of the market,” that is why “the political decision to recognize them as essential services and as public services is extremely important,” he added. He recalled that the same decree establishes the universal and compulsory basic benefit and that “in December what we did was establish the conditions” in which it was going to be provided, in reference to resolution 1467.
That resolution defines the universe people who can request from companies –From the first day of 2021 – move the current plans to the universal basic benefit that for mobile telephony starts from a plan of 200 pesos and data plans of 150 pesos; for internet a fixed connection of 5 megabytes for 700 pesos and reductions of up to 40 percent in the pay TV subscription depending on the size of the operator.
“We established a basic service so that no one is disconnected,” emphasized López, to clarify that the beneficiaries must have as income a maximum of two minimum living and mobile wagesAsked about the implementation of the basic provision, López said that operationally the “circuit may take a couple of weeks“, but he clarified that” those who are in the universe of beneficiaries can already ask companies for this benefit. “” All companies, large, small and cooperatives, are working to be able to provide the basic benefit, “he stressed.
In that sense and consulted by the meeting of referents of the cooperativism with the Chief of Cabinet, Santiago Cafiero, indicated that “We will hold meetings with cooperatives and SMEs during January to analyze the asymmetries and see if in February we have to segment in a different way“.
A claim in which cooperatives and SMEs coincide is that the prices provided for the basic service, especially on the internet and pay television, do not cover the costs and in the cases of the smallest, to give 5 mega connections they need to make a technological leap in their networks.
In this regard, López highlighted Enacom resolution 270, which modified the Bidding Terms and Conditions for the Award of Non-Refundable Contributions (ANR) and which extended participation to towns of 30,000 inhabitants (previously 10,000); it raised the advance of the amount from 20 to 30 percent and the amount per locality from 10 to 20 million pesos, among other measures.
“Enacom implemented nine new ANR lines, which allowed us to grant double the ANR in 10 months of management than the previous government in 4 years,” he stressed.
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