The cell phone companies are preparing a rise in the cost of text messages due to before the end of the year. The company Movistar implemented it at the beginning of the month, while Claro and Personal will do the same in the following days. The raise will be up to 56%.
Movistar increased the price of text messaging by 19%. The cost of each message went from 0.36 to 0.43 cents.
The company Personal informs that each text message with a current cost of 0.25 pesos, will increase to 0.39 pesos from December 6, which means a 56% increase.
In the case of Claro the information is published in their own website. In the plans with a fixed cost the SMS cost 0.28 pesos but from December 28 it will increase to 0.34 pesos; the free plans will go from 17 cents to 25 and the prepaid plans will go from 0.28 to 0.43 cents.
About 75% from the 45.9 million mobile phones in service work with prepaid cards, according to private sources. According to INDEC, in May this year, the telephone company had had an increase of 24%, and the mobile phones sector had an increase of 14.3% in the amount of phones used.
The rates of text messages are not regulated by the Government. For this reason the companies are to decide on the amount they charge users for the service.
The volume of text messages is a surprising phenomenon in Argentina. According to the National Communications Commission, in August this year, 5.515 million were sent. During the same period 1347 basic telephone calls were made.
