According to the operators, high-consumption subscribers do not have any sensitivities regarding the tariff increase even by two times
Mobile and fixed internet operators sent a letter to the president asking for a 100% increase in the tariff of mobile internet packages above 2 gigabytes.
According to the Iran digital economy annotation, fixed and mobile internet operators wrote to the president to increase service tariffs. Complaining about the non-increase of the Internet tariff in the last 5 years, they wanted to change the tariffs. Stating that the ratio of Internet tariff to purchasing power in neighboring countries is several times higher in Iran, they officially asked the president to increase the tariff of mobile data packages above two gigabytes by 100%.
According to the operators, half of the people, including the low-income groups, have a monthly consumption of less than two gigabytes per month for mobile data services. They have also informed the president that if they agree to increase the tariff, in order to support the less privileged classes, it is possible to provide free and cheap packages for this class of users with the coordination and management of the honorable government.
Emphasizing that the majority of the operators’ income comes from high-consumption subscribers, they believe that these people do not have any sensitivities regarding the increase of the tariff to the extent of even doubling, and there is no need to pay subsidies to this sector from the source of the operator’s or government’s income.
In this letter, it is stated that the communication industry and operators are not in a good financial position at all:
“The names of a number of operators are included in the list of bank debtors, which shows that this industry is unprofitable. Therefore, if the process of fixing the price of services in this sector continues, the bankruptcy of this industry is certain in the short future. In this regard, we are desperately asking your Excellency, who has a long history of activating bankrupt industries and setting up the economy wheel, to issue an urgent order to increase the tariff of mobile phone service by 100% in view of the agreement of the market regulation headquarters with the tariff increase. The approval of various authorities has also been received, and they should issue an immediate amendment of the tariff system in this area to prevent the bankruptcy of communication operators.“
Operators believe that despite the sharp increase in the costs of providing communication services, due to the sharp increase in the exchange rate and very high inflation, and considering that most of their costs are in foreign currency; The stabilization of service tariffs of national operators for the past 5 years has led to a sharp decrease in the investment power of operators and hindered the development of new communication technologies, both fixed and mobile.
The incident that they believe has brought about the decline in the quality of the network in recent years because the possibility of investment has decreased:
“From the results of the inability of the operators to develop the network properly and in sync with the growth of the demand for internet consumption, especially the public interest in using virtual education or the digital economy during the Corona period.
And after that, we can point to the lack of development of the communication infrastructure that is necessary to support the digital economy. This disproportion in the demand for network capacity and the lack of network development makes related businesses unable to develop their market, and as a result, it brings many social and economic consequences, including the appointment of elites and the increase of unemployment.“
At the bottom of this letter, the names of the first mobile operators, Irancell, Shatel, Telecom, Asiatech, Hiweb, Rightel and Mobinnet can be seen.
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