Meo raises prices, Nos and Vodafone are still in disguise

The new year will bring an increase in communication prices, at least for Meo customers. As of the date this article was published, only the Altice-owned operator considered that the new year would bring a new price change. Nos and Vodafone say it is not yet possible to predict whether prices will go up, while Nowo guarantees that no updates can be expected at the beginning of next year.

In the case of Meo, the pricing will be updated from February. “Meo will update prices from February, based on the CPI, with only fixed-vote customers and customers with a retirement plan excluded from this increase,” explained the company’s official source to Negócios, confirming the reference made by Altice’s CEO, Ana Figueiredo, to Lusa, in October.

“We must remember that this update has been provided in our customers’ contracts since 2018, and it is a common practice in the industry and in our sector, based on predictability and transparency for customers,” adds the former Portugal Telecom.

In 2021, the operator announced a price increase for 2022 by 0.50 cents, but this year the government expects inflation to be 7.4%, so, if updated based on the CPI, prices could rise to four euros in some packages.

“At this date, it is not possible to anticipate the expression or ‘timings’ of possible price changes,” an official source from Vodafone Portugal replied to Negusius, explaining, however, that “the sector is strongly affected by inflation,” in particular through energy and fuel costs.

And the company adds: “This increase in costs has an additional impact at a time when Vodafone is developing multiple plans to modernize the network and implement the plan to commit to covering the fifth generation network,” noting that the high inflation rate has put “enormous internal challenges in order to avoid the reflection of these effects on Service prices. This effort, as the operator led by Mario Vaz asserts, “is not consistent with the expression of the rate of inflation or with its medium-term character”.

On the part of Nos, the answer is also that it is not yet possible to predict whether there will be a price update in 2023.

Nowo, which is waiting for the green light from the competition authority that Vodafone will buy, assumes that “there is no provision to update service prices for its existing customers at the beginning of the year,” stressing that “the premise of ensuring that there is no increase at the beginning of the year under this administration.”

at the end of october, Anacom asked operators to exercise moderation when raising prices, bearing in mind that there are “relevant economic and social reasons which must be duly considered by companies in the sector”. He considered the critical additions to be “disabled for consumers”.

One of the points most criticized by the telecom regulator has been the price charged by operators in Portugal, which considers them too high. Although they can change prices, operators must clearly do so 30 days in advance. BrytfmOnline