In April 2022, telecommunications prices, as measured by the respective sub-index of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), increased by 1.4% over the previous month due to price changes in some bundled offers. Compared to the same month of the previous year, prices rose by 3.3%, 3.9 percentage points (p.p.) less than the growth in the CPI. The average rate of change of telecommunications prices in the last twelve months was 1.5%, 1.3 percentage points (p.p.) below that recorded by the CPI (2.8%). This trend resulted from the price increases implemented by MEO, NOS and Vodafone in May 2021 and April 2022.
In April 2022, MEO, NOS and Vodafone increased the average monthly fees for the first 24 months of some ‘triple play’ offers by between 2.6% and 11.1%. Meanwhile, the average monthly fees for the first 24 months of some ‘quadruple play’ offers increased between 1.8% and 8.2%. Three NOS offers decreased in price (between -3.2% and -5.7%).
In April 2022, the average rate of change in telecommunications prices in Portugal was higher than in the European Union (EU) (+0.9 p.p.). The average rate of change over the last twelve months in telecommunications prices in Portugal was the 9th highest (19th lowest) among the EU countries. The country with the highest price increase was Slovakia (+5.2%) while the highest decrease was Bulgaria (-5.3%). On average, telecoms prices in the EU increased by 0.6%.
From a long-term perspective and in cumulative terms, telecoms prices have grown 12.5% since the end of 2010 while the CPI grew 18.4%. Between 2015 and 2019 the cumulative change in telecommunications prices was higher than the cumulative change in the CPI due to the “price adjustments” made by the main providers. From May 2019, the narrowing in the divergence between the two indices was mainly due to the entry into force of Regulation (EU) 2018/1971 of the European Parliament and of the Councilhttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1464946 which imposed a maximum price on intra-EU international calls and SMS. Without the price reduction of intra-EU calls, it is estimated that telecommunications prices would have grown by 16.2% since the end of 2010, being, in cumulative terms, 2.2 p.p. below the CPI variation in this period.
Between the end of 2009 and April 2022, telecoms prices in Portugal increased by 10.5%, while in the EU they decreased by 9.5%. The gap has narrowed with the entry into force on 15 May 2019 of new European rules regulating intra-EU communications prices.
A finer comparative analysis shows that between the end of 2009 and April 2022, telecoms prices decreased by 22.9% in the Czech Republic and 2.2% in Greece, while in Slovakia and Portugal they increased by 10.4% and 10.5% respectively.
NOWO offered the lowest monthly fees in eight cases out of a range of 13 services/offers, while MEO and Vodafone presented the lowest monthly fees for two types of service/offer. NOS presented the lowest monthly fees for one type of service/offer.
On a year-on-year basis, there were 23 price increases and 2 price decreases. The following price changes stand out:
- the minimum STV monthly fee increased by 3.4% due to the end of the first monthly fee offer by NOS;
- FBB's minimum monthly fee fell by 4.2%, due to the offer of the first monthly fee of NOWO's basic service;
- the minimum monthly fee of the Mobile Telephone Service with Internet increased by 50.0%, due to the elimination of the NOWO and MEO offers (Uzo offer) with a monthly fee of five euros;
- the minimum monthly fee for mobile broadband via PC/Tablet increased by 4.3%, following the elimination of the first monthly fee offer from MEO's base service;
- the minimum monthly fees of the offers FBB+STV (+11.1%), STV+STF and 3P (+0.4%), increased following the elimination of NOWO's TV option at 2.5 euros/month;
- the minimum monthly fees of the 4P offers increased by 9.9% due to the elimination of NOWO's mobile telephone service option with a monthly fee of five euros, and by 1.0% due to the elimination of NOWO's TV option at 2.5 euros/month, for a total of 11.0%;
- the minimum monthly fee of the 5P offer increased by 0.2%, following the elimination of the first monthly fee offer from Vodafone's base service.
Per provider, MEO increased the monthly fees of eight services/offers while NOS increased the minimum monthly fees of four services/offers. Vodafone increased the minimum monthly fees of three services/offers and decreased the monthly fee of one offer (mobile broadband internet via PC/tablet offer). In turn, NOWO increased the minimum monthly fees of eight services/offers and reduced the monthly fee of one service/offer (offer of the first monthly fee of the basic single-play fixed broadband service). Particularly noteworthy are the increases in monthly fees for MEO's, NOS's and Vodafone's 4P and 5P offers that occurred in May and June 2021 and for MEO in April 2022.
Consult the statistical report:
- Trends in telecommunications prices - April 2022 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1727294
