{"id":61715,"date":"2024-05-29T22:13:33","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T22:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs"},"modified":"2024-05-29T23:41:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T23:41:03","slug":"government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs","title":{"rendered":"Government halts new telecom tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>The Mozambican government on Tuesday suspended the new tariffs which the National Communications Institute (INCM), the regulatory body for telecommunications, had decreed on 2 May.<\/p>\n

After the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), the government spokesperson, Deputy Transport Minister Amilton Alissone, told reporters that the government had listened to the INCM\u2019s explanation for why it had imposed new tariffs for internet, voice and SMS services.<\/p>\n

Then it recommended that the INCM suspend the new prices, and review the study it had used to calculate them. Although delicately termed a \u201crecommendation\u201d, this was effectively an instruction.<\/p>\n

Alissone said the INCM will meet with the telecommunications operators to inform them of the government\u2019s decision, after which the operators should revert to the previous tariffs.<\/p>\n

The INCM Chairperson, Thua Mote, initially claimed that the new tariffs would reduce prices and would allow greater \u201cdigital inclusion\u201d \u2013 but consumers soon worked out that in reality the INCM had greatly increased prices. A group of university students protested to the INCM that the new tariffs had smuggled in price increases of around 150 per cent.<\/p>\n

The INCM changed its position and claimed that the only real change it had made was to ban operators from offering unlimited internet access.<\/p>\n

It claimed that the tariff for voice calls has dropped from six meticais (about nine US cents) per minute to five meticais per minute. The average price of the data service fell from 2.30 to 1.08 meticais per megabyte.<\/p>\n

But the INCM\u2019s initial announcements were deceptive, since nobody buys telecommunications services one phone call or one megabyte at a time. There are a bewildering variety of packages and bonuses offered by the three mobile phone companies (T-Mcel, Vodacom and Movitel) and by the various internet service providers, making it difficult to calculate the average rise or decline in prices.<\/p>\n

The INCM also claimed it intervened to ensure the sustainability of the telecommunications market, and to avoid any collapse. But none of the operators had suggested that they were on the verge of collapse or that the market was in any danger.<\/p>\n

No company had requested that the regulator push up tariffs, and none had claimed that the tariffs practiced were anti-competitive. It seemed that it was only the INCM that imagined there was a threat to the sustainability of the market.<\/p>\n

A wave of protest led the government to think again. At a march to the INCM Maputo headquarters on 18 May, one civil society activist, Quiteria Guirengane warned that pushing up telecommunications prices might be a political measure \u201cto silence Mozambicans\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese exorbitant prices must be abandoned\u201d, she declared.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mozambique<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican government on Tuesday suspended the new tariffs which the National Communications Institute (INCM), the regulatory body for telecommunications, had decreed on 2 May. After the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), the government spokesperson, Deputy Transport Minister Amilton Alissone, told reporters that the government had listened to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":61714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-61715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nGovernment halts new telecom tariffs - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Mozambican government on Tuesday suspended the new tariffs which the National Communications Institute (INCM), the r ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government halts new telecom tariffs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Mozambican government on Tuesday suspended the new tariffs which the National Communications Institute (INCM), the r ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mozambique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-29T22:13:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-29T23:41:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2024\/05\/sm_1717008148.294556.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1682\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"954\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Government halts new telecom tariffs\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-29T22:13:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-29T23:41:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs\"},\"wordCount\":450,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2024\/05\/sm_1717008148.294556.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mozambique\",\"Mozambique\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/government-halts-new-telecom-tariffs\",\"name\":\"Government halts new telecom tariffs - 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