Costa Rica – Will telephone companies in Costa Rica ban together to offer higher prices or compete against each other and offer lower prices….we will see.
Telephone companies have opted to charge the most expensive rates allowed by Sutel. This might change now that, as of September 18th, Sutel declared in free competition the telephone and mobile Internet markets.
The companies charged prepaid customer an average of ¢40 for a minute of conversation and postpaid ones ¢34 per minute, between 2014 and 2016, the cap allowed in this modality. The average, when talking about cell phones, is ¢26.2.
With the deregulation of prices by the Superintendency, we are unsure whether prices will turn in our favor or become even more expensive. The decision to stop regulating pricing is based on that now, after six years, there is a competing market in mobile telephony.
Sutel will still be involved, inspecting aspects of rights and quality of service. It will, however, only intervene in prices if it discovers anti-competitive practices in the market. The operators will now define the worth of their services.
