Activists of the communication industry have spoken about the necessity of changing the basic tariffs of this industry at least in the last two years and when the pressure of inflation has affected different parts of the country and businesses. However, a general plan for this increase has not yet been presented, and it does not seem that there will be any change in the existing conditions, even if all tariffs are increased at the same time. On the other hand, experts declare that the current situation is not the right time to change internet tariffs, because in a situation where internet restrictions have been followed more intensively since last year, internet companies are facing the question and resistance of users, why should they charge a high tariff for a service? pay for what is offered to them with low quality?

Stay in a dead end

For a long time, fixed and mobile operators have been asking the decision-making bodies to revise the tariff of communication services, especially the Internet tariff, due to inflation and price increases in various sectors; However, both in the past two governments and in the current government, this request has been met with resistance from the relevant authorities. For example, by holding meetings and setting up various meetings by the private sector regarding the need to increase tariffs in the Internet sector, the parliament did not allow the government to amend the tariffs in an unprecedented action in the budget law of 1400.

In addition, Eisa Zarepour, Minister of Communications, in a television interview in May 1401, against the request of the private sector to increase tariffs in the Internet sector, stated: “Increasing the Internet tariff depends on doubling its speed.” Although this order has not been implemented to date and the increase in internet speed has not only not doubled, but the quality of the internet has become worse than ever, however, in the past year, there have been whispers of the need to revise the tariffs from the government. For example, last year, the Minister of Communications, who made the tariff increase in the communications sector dependent on the increase in internet speed, announced in the parliament that if the communications tariffs, especially in the telecommunication company sector, do not change, this large telecom industry company will go bankrupt.

In continuation of these statements, some operators made changes in their internet prices and packages in the form of lights off. If in 1401, Irancell and Hamrah-e-Avval first removed some of their bulky and long-term packages, and a number of fixed operators were also allowed to increase the price of their services according to the 266 regulation of the regulator approved in 2016. This group of operators did this, and some packages with a price lower than the price floor approved by the regulator were removed. However, none of these cases have been a complete solution to reduce costs and develop the communications industry. Telecom operators declare that it is not possible to continue with the current tariffs. They mention the increase of their current and non-current costs during recent years as a factor that has reduced the profit margin of this industry year after year and they warn about the deterioration of the communication industry with the continuation of these conditions.

what’s the solution?

Mohammad Ali Yousefizadeh, the CEO of Asiatech, recently pointed out the negative effects of the fixed tariff on this industry in a meeting organized by the scientific-analytical group of Specter. As he claims, the price of the Internet has been continuously reduced since 2019, while the space and electricity tariffs of data centers and the human power of traffic producers have increased several times in these few years, and this has nothing to do with the price of the Internet. According to him, with the new approval of 344 cloud transmission, which has increased transmission costs (up to 5 times), the development of CDN by producers and data centers in the country’s regions is a more reasonable method, which will increase the investment and operational costs of these players up to three and a half times. . He stated that it will be impossible to produce content with these costs even with the optical fiber project, and suggested that the price of domestic traffic be increased to half the price of the international internet instead of 15% of the price of the internet, like in the retail sector.

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