Social Internet tariff does not meet the target

Nearly a year and a half after it became available, the Social Internet Tariff (TSI) is failing. According to the official source Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (Anacom), out of approximately 780,000 eligible families across the country (the same as eligible for social tariffs for water, electricity and gas), only 546 use this tariff. A number that is only 0.07% of the total.

For the president of the regulator, João Cadete de Matos, the current loyalty regime and bundled telecommunications offers partly justify poor compliance with TSI, which costs 6.15 euros per month. Deco warns that subscribing to a personalized TV service (which is no longer enough) and joining TSI is more expensive than choosing the cheapest TV, Network and voice packages on the market. In addition, the service offered by TSI – 15 GB of traffic and 12 Mbps of speed – has a speed of 60% to 94% lower than the most affordable tariff plans of each operator. The cheapest 3 Play packages on the market have speeds ranging from 30Mbps to 500Mbps.

In some European countries, it is the operators who determine the TSI, the meanings of which vary. In England, for example, Smarty, Three’s mobile operator, offers unlimited calls, messages and data for €13.59 per month. Spanish TSI (with a minimum speed of 30Mbps) includes a €20 discount on the monthly bill, but there are also operators offering packages for €14.95 (100Mbps, landline and unlimited calls) for eligible families. In Belgium, the package costs 19 euros, but the government is preparing to launch an alternative that includes TV and costs 40 euros, about half the regular price.