Among young people under 25 years of age, the most popular fares in Portugal in recent years have been those offered by Yorn, Moche and WTF. These belong respectively to Vodafone, MEO and NOS, and their days are numbered as we know them.
These rates are part of zero-rating offers that, as ANACOM explains, basically discriminate “between traffic related to applications zero rate and the rest of the traffic.
In practice, and as you will know if you use any of these rates, there is a mobile data bonus. But there are also certain privileged apps for which users have “more gigs” to spend. Now that has to end at the end of March.
ANACOM gave operators 20 business days to end zero-rating offers
This week, ANACOM granted 20 business days “to Internet access service providers to cease zero-rating and similar offers that violate net neutrality.” This must be fulfilled “in the case of offers available for new subscriptions and 90 business days in the case of contracts currently in execution.”
It must be taken into account that “Users whose contracts provide for a loyalty period that is still in progress may, if they wish, maintain said offers under the current conditions until the end of said period.”
ANACOM, therefore, considers that these transition periods are adequate so that the operators can adapt their offers to the decision made. It is about monitoring the “evolution of the international context and the European legal framework”.
The operators must also provide “within 90 business days following the date of publication of the final decision, detailed information on the changes made to the respective offers to accommodate the decision of this Authority, as well as the information disclosed to end users. ”.
More mobile data without increasing prices, that’s what ANACOM is asking for
The entity warns that although “greater volumes of data will have to be made available to general Internet access, at least equivalent to the total volume of data that users currently have available, without increasing prices.”
These rates violate the provisions of section 3 of article 3 of the open internet regulation, according to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Now we will see how long it takes users to accept ANACOM’s decision.
You can listen to a discussion on the subject in the latest edition of the 4gnews podcast.