Argentina. The National Communications Agency, Enacom, recently issued a measure that activated the universal basic provision of Pay-TV and telecommunications services, with controlled pricing.
The justice has just suspended the validity of this measure and restores the power of cable and telecommunications operators to set their marketing conditions, as a competing service, in order to guarantee the continuity, sustainability and quality of the service provided by hundreds of companies throughout the country.
As reported by the Argentine Association of Cable Television, ATVC, the precautionary measure, initiated by a representative of the industry of the province of Córdoba, determines the suspension of DNU 690, DNU 311 and any act issued as a result of these rules. It also orders the National Executive Power and ENACOM to refrain from issuing and carrying out any act based on these decrees, until a final judgment is issued.
In accordance with the provisions of the Justice, the regulatory body is not empowered to continue dictating rules derived from DNU 690 or executing those already dictated, which are suspended in a general way, reaching all ICT operators in our country.
According to the ruling, it emerges from the evidence provided that the impossibility of setting prices freely established by Decree 690– which declared PUBLIC services to ICTs, including cable TV – prevents companies from being able to recover the investments made and continue to provide their services as they do today.
According to the Association, the situation of the industry worsened with the dictation of Resolution 1466 of last December, which only authorized an increase between 5 and 8%. "This is absolutely unreasonable and insufficient as the official inflation last year was 36% according to INDEC and our prices have been frozen for more than a year."
He added that "state intervention and the consequent delay in prices, added to the significant increase in costs, many of them dollarized, imply a very significant decrease in income generation. This puts at risk the possibility of making capital investments no longer for growth but for the maintenance of the ICT services demanded by users, which have proven with the pandemic to require more and more bandwidth, greater speed, more technology and more content. "
The judicial measure maintains that the unilateral modification of the conditions for the provision of services, derived from DNU 690, which qualifies them as a public service, does not respect the provisions of Article 42 of the National Constitution. The ruling makes it clear that the rights violated are not only those of the company who depend on it, but also those of all those who use the services it provides. In other words, that users may be deprived of continuing to receive the contracted services.
