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CoastRider - CoastRider Edition 590 -- March Edition22nd 470 -2016 March 5thwww.thecoastrider.net 2013
Prices of mobile phones up for the first time in Spain We all have a love hate relationship with our mobile phone and our network providers. Now for the first time on Spain, mobile prices are on the rise with increases in packages and flat rates applied by operators showing the first upturn in prices since statistics started to be compiled. Mobile providers have been virtually dropping their prices since the mobile phone's commercial inception in Spain and, more specifically, since 2009 when they began to record reliable statistics. Strong competition between companies and bundling of services (fixed, mobile, Internet and television) are the two main causes of this decline. But that period of continuous falls has come to an end. In the last part of 2015, rates of mobile costs showed the first upturn in its history. The so - called index of mobile prices, the main indicator to measure this scale because it is a kind of IPC telephony as it is composed of different mobile services, including calls of convergent packages, grew by almost one point (0.9) between the second and third quarter of 2015, to 31.6 points, according to the latest quarterly report of the National Commission Markets and Competition. This is the first increase since the historical series began compiling this index at the start of 2009. The index was set at a base of 100 and since then mobile prices have fallen about 70%. The upward turn shows a price increase that operators started in the spring of 2015. Thus, Telefonica prices rose in May last year with its offer of Movistar Fusion while Vodafone in April announced new prices for mobile tariff plans (Mini, Smart and Red) accounting for an increase of between one and nine euros . Prices for telecommunications services are highly deflationary. In 2014, they fell 5.7% and 6.6% in 2013,
according to the general CPI. CNMC statistics, which are more refined, has reflected the largest declines. In 2014, mobile phone prices fell 17%; in 2013, they yielded 26%, the highest record low, beating the collapse of 18% in 2012 and 9.6% in 2011. Movistar increased their costs by three euros a month to the price of all packages on Fusion since last February 5th in exchange for increasing the upload speed because of new fibre optic connections that can give 1Gb of data for all mobile lines. Orange started raising prices in March, with a rise of three euros monthly to all its Kangaroo plans, its main convergent package in exchange for raising the speed to fibre customers from 30 to 50 megabytes (Mbps) symmetric and an increase from 150 to 200 minutes of calls to mobiles and 1.5 to 2 GB of data on mobile. Vodafone announced this week that they will follow the example of their main
rivals and raise its plan prices for both mobile and convergent packages between one and three euros from April 18th. The British operator also increases data and calls (fixed to mobile, including relatives and roaming). When these increases, which are much more widespread than those from the spring of 2015 are counted, this is the first annual increase in prices of mobile ever be reflected, as measured by technicians. The increase in prepaid mobile rates also reflected in the average revenue per minute, although very slightly (+ 0.3%) to 6.23 euro cents, due to the rise who have experienced prepaid rates (+10.4 %) offset the decline in contract prices. It also calls subject to flat rate also experienced their first historic increase in the third quarter of 2015 from 5.7 to 6.1 cents per minute. Mobile broadband has been a year reflecting the rise in rates although in this case and corresponds with higher performance, as companies have significantly raised the monthly limit of mobile data consumption. Thus, the average revenue per line and quarter grew 4% last year, to 27.57 euros. Rising prices and higher spending per household with new fibre services and mobile data is also reflected in the sector's turnover. In the third quarter of 2015 this was 7,509 million euros, 2.7% higher than the third quarter of 2014. This is the second consecutive quarter in which grows the turnover of the companies, which has been falling since 2008.