Chile: Following TDLC resolutions, access rates for mobile networks to drop by 80%

The government of Chile has announced a reduction of 80% to the access charges for the country´s mobile phone operators, going from 8.7 pesos (US 1 cent) to 1.8 pesos (US$0.0027), which will reduce user fees for consumers making calls from landlines or between cell phones.

The new rates will be valid for 5 years, with the expectation that prices for calls from prepaid phones could be reduced up to 20%. The norm follows the line taken by the government for promoting technological development, size, and deployment of more efficient networks, as well as with the opinions of the Court of Defense of Free Competition (TDLC) that seek to reduce distortions and asymmetries in access to networks.

“We are making progress in putting modern technology at the service of a better quality of life for all Chileans,” said President Sebastián Piñera, who stressed that with this measure the country will “go from being one of the 10 countries with the highest rates among the OECD to being among those with the lowest rates, on a par with the more developed countries.”