2019 came to an end with an annual inflation of the order of 54%, which will be confirmed by INDEC on January 15. All goods and services have shown increases, but there was an item that has been growing above the rest: that of telecommunications.
In November (last record) it increased 7.4% compared to the previous month and stood as the one with the greatest progress. In the interannual measurement, it was second with 61%, only surpassed by Health (76%), product of the adjustments in prepaid medicine.
In the last twelve months surveyed by INDEC, the telecommunications sector registered greater increases even than Food and Beverage. There were months that quadrupled it (December 2018) and in others it grew at double the rate (June 2019). In the accumulated, he scored 7 points (see infographic)
"The inputs of the communications sector, such as equipment, materials, bandwidth and TV signals, are dollarized. So, in addition to inflation, the sector suffered the fluctuations of the dollar that were transferred to the price of the technology basket" He explains to iProUP, Marina Rosso Siverino, vice president of the Technical Department of the Argentine Center of Engineers.
Prices
A type family, consisting of two adults and two children, pays up to $ 7,900 per month for a pack that includes Internet, pay TV, fixed telephony and cell phone subscriptions. These are essential services in this era of connectivity, except for pay TV and fixed telephony that are also packaged in the provider's offer.
Movistar's proposal in mobile telephony for two 3GB plans for the little ones is $ 1,998 per month ($ 819 each). In case adults hire a 5GB plan, add $ 2,918 each month ($ 1,189 each).
- To this we must add connectivity at home. In this case, the Fiber pack with 100 megabytes TV (90 channels), fiber optic Internet and fixed telephony with unlimited calls throughout the country, costs $ 2,272 per month. Thus, a family that contracts their technology basket with Movistar must disburse $ 6,288 per month.
- Meanwhile, Telecom's proposal with two 3GB plans at $ 1,660 per month ($ 830 each) and two 5GB for adults at $ 2,400 ($ 1,200 unit price) accounts for a total of $ 4,060, only for mobile telephony.
At home, the disbursement for the Cablevision Flow Box + Fibertel 100 Megas pack is $ 3,356. This combo must include a basic fixed telephone subscription ($ 488), since it is not offered within the Internet / TV combo, so the technology basket is located at $ 7,415 per month.
More services to build customer loyalty
The combinations between companies, services and promotions are endless and allow consumers to assemble a basket according to their pockets. To cushion the blow and not lose portfolio, operators are offering:
- Discounts between 30% and 50% for up to 12 months
- Free Gigas
- Free subscriptions to video or music streaming services
- Months "off" in channel packs
- Portability offers to attract new customers
The tendency is to assemble packaged services, because in this way it is more difficult for a client to get off or change companies, and offer new benefits. In many cases, consumers can reduce their basket by half and get a discount again when the months included in the promo are fulfilled.
Telecom, for example, offers a 45% discount for 12 months in a pack that includes 50MB Fibertel + Pay TV Flow + a 5GB Personal line at $ 2,924 ($ 5,829 list price).
In addition, the firm tells iProUP that "it has developed a strategy of convergent proposals, which had great acceptance despite the economic situation of the country, such as promotions with gift Gigas between customers of different brands or combined discounts for belonging to the same ecosystem of services".
"We deepen our strategy associated with Personal Convergent Club, also for customers of Fibertel and Cablevisión, which incorporates benefits and discounts in different areas to the entire client portfolio of different services," adds the source consulted.
Of course, in turn, to build loyalty, it is offering plans with a greater number of gigabytes and benefits. "In home services, we have built a network of high speed and quality with proposals for Internet, fixed telephony and TV through fiber optic," they inform iProUP from the operator.
In turn, Movistar, with almost 22 million users, offers various promises to optimize its consumption: increase the capacity of the subscription; pass gigas to contacts; Unify lines with Movistar Family and access Club Movistar benefits such as audio streaming service and Movistar FRI Music.
"We analyze the consumption and behavior of each client to offer more tailored benefits. In 2019 we launched Movistar Play, with free content for all Postpaid customers. In addition, we offered more gigabytes to navigate to more than 4 million customers without paying more ", they emphasize from Movistar.
For Juan Gnius, director of Telracom, a consultant specialized in ICT, operators did not have disruptive proposals to retain customers, but continued to handle the type of marketing actions that are common in the market.
"Despite inflation, they were able to maintain access, although many customers dropped some additional ones such as football packs or Premium channels. In the mobile segment, transfers to cheaper plans or portability were registered looking for better prices," he says. .
Without large user losses due to the crisis, the market had the same behavior as in other years without inflationary context, adds Gnius. However, pay TV and fixed telephony continued their downward trend more in line with a phenomenon that has been taking place globally than because of the Argentine situation.
To this trend, the request of young people, who do not demand these two services, but high-speed Internet to hire services such as Netflix and Spotify and cellular telephony. Pay TV is mainly maintained by football and older people who still watch news or other content.
Operators are betting on more proposals and competition only occurs in the mobile segment, "since we have many areas of fixed monopoly networks," says Rosso.
"Today, there really is competition in services to large clients, operators and Government, not in the residential segment. We retreated in the household segment. A couple of years ago, the inhabitants of CABA had Cablevisión, Telecom and in some sectors Telecentro. Today only Telecom. IPlan deployments are still very incipient, "he completes.
A complicated 2020 for the dollar
Industry specialists are concerned about how the 30% tax will impact on telecommunications services following the entry into force of the Law on Social Solidarity and Productive Reactivation.
The picture will also be complicated for cooperatives and SMEs in TV benefits, since the signals are dollarized and the increases are transferred directly to cable operators, which in turn translate into adjustments for users.
On the other hand, the suppliers will continue betting on generating value proposals based on the convergence of services and entertainment from content platforms.
In this sense, Telecom has just launched Flow Pass, a proposal that allows Personal and Flow customers to access the entire content offer of their site from wherever they want, at any time and from any device.
Movistar does not want to be left behind and will also continue advancing steadily in the deployment of optical fiber to the home.
