Alexander Alfie
11/11/2020 17:58
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 11/11/2020 17:58
The executives of Telecom, Supercanal and Red Intercable warned about the fall in investments and the quality of Internet and cable television services.
And they demanded that the Government
modify the DNU of telecommunications
, so that operators can set their own prices for the services they provide to users, in a sector where there are competing providers.
Telecom CEO Roberto Nobile warned that if the Government does not change, it will put a brake on the ICT industry in Argentina.
During his presentation at the International TV Conference, the Telecom executive stated that the DNU of telecommunications "implies a radical change in the field of telecommunications", which
closes "access to sources of external financing
, both from entities financial and suppliers ”.
For this reason, Nobile called for an “open and frank dialogue, between the Government, in its role as regulator, and the private sector, to establish a modern, agile and simple regulatory framework that allows the sustained development of the sector and the entire ecosystem. ICT, which are clearly key to the development of our country and even more so in the coming years. "
The group of companies in the sector invested more than US $ 2 billion a year in deploying fiber optic networks, incorporating new technological platforms and buying equipment that, in general, is imported.
But that level of investment in Internet, telephony and pay TV collapsed with the Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) 690/20, which
considers them "public services" and freezes their prices
until December 31, after the freeze that already they had for most of this year, in an economy that had inflation of 37% in the last 12 months, while the peso was strongly devalued in relation to the dollar.
Fabián Di Cicco, general manager of Red Intercable, said: "The DNU dislodged us. We were not called. Our industry develops in competition. We understand that the only thing that is intended with this is to control prices, something that the market must do and competition.
It is something that must be solved, "
said the director of Red Intercable, an operator that is made up of more than 250 SMEs, which provide service in 550 locations in the country.
Di Cicco raised the commitment of SMEs with the communities in the interior of the country and the effort they make to be able to maintain services in localities severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the economic crisis and the regulation of the sector.
For this reason, he
demanded a dialogue with the Government,
which allows adequate regulation of the DNU, by the National Communications Agency (ENaCom).
Facundo Prado, CEO and shareholder of Supercanal, stated the need for "an interaction between investment, regulation and development. A consensus of growth must be generated, between the policies of the national State, the regulation of services, the investments of the provincial governments and those carried out by the operators. These conditions should allow us to
continue investing in order to maintain the services
and for the updating of prices to be dynamic and predictable, "concluded Prado.
Moderated by Carolina Limbatto, from the Cullen International consulting firm, the three executives of Telecom, Red Intercable and Supercanal
agreed on the need to
generate a "frank" dialogue with the Government and ENaCom
, which would allow them to resume investments in the sector, to maintain and improve the quality of Internet services and cable TV.
"In order to increase prices on January 1, they would have to authorize us now, because we must inform customers 30 days in advance,"
the manager of a cable TV provider
complained to
Clarín
at the
thirtieth edition of the Conference. Internationals
, which for the first time are being done entirely virtual.