Prepaid FLOW calls to cost more

Some Flow Barbados customers will have to start paying slightly more for talking on their mobile prepaid phones at the end of this month.

The company has announced that it will be increasing the per-minute talk rate for pay-as-you-go customers by five cents.

“Effective March 22, 2021, pay-per-use calls to Flow mobile, and other local mobile and fixed networks will increase to $0.65 and $0.85 per minute respectively,” the company told customers.

The company has also indicated that it will be increasing the charge on its short-term data plan by $0.09, also effective March 22.

“Pay-per-use data and out-of-plan data will move from $0.61 to $0.70 per MB,” the company said.

In an emailed response to questions from Barbados TODAY on the increase, Flow said its rates “continue to remain competitive in the market”.

“However, we take this opportunity to encourage our prepaid customers to explore the added value of a Combo Plan from as little as $5.99 that provides unlimited local Flow minutes, minutes to other local networks and generous amounts of mobile data including free/bonus WhatsApp minutes,” the company added.

One Flow customer told Barbados TODAY she was not sure she was even in a position to manage a one cent per minute increase, pointing out that funds were currently “tight”.

“I don’t know how I will manage. I hardly have money to put on my phone already,” she said, adding “can you imagine how others will manage who are not working but have important calls to make? That will equal to less talk time for the amount that you are accustomed putting on”.

The mobile price increase comes as the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) issues its decision on the Price Cap Plan 2021, which is designed to govern the adjustment of rates of the regulated telecommunications services of Cable & Wireless (Barbados) Ltd., primarily landline services.

The FTC explained that the PCP 2021, which will come into effect from April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2024, was the most recent version of a framework that was first implemented in 2005 and is based on two categories – competitive and non-competitive services.

It explained that the competitive services will not be subjected to an overall price cap, but the company must provide “advance notification” of any increase in prices.

The FTC said it would continue to monitor market conditions including price and demand for uncapped non-competitive service and may introduce “price regulation” for these services it deemed necessary.

No overall price cap is applied to the non-competitive services. However, a price cap will be applied to landline services including value added services.

These include unlimited local calling, call waiting, voicemail, caller ID, and call forwarding in the case of residential, and unlimited local calling, call forward and automated assistance for customers, in the case of businesses.

The FTC said it determined that the application of a price cap was critical for those services, which it said was “typically purchased by vulnerable customers and for which C&W faces no effective competition from Digicel anywhere in the country”.

“For these services, C&W’s ability to raise prices annually will be restricted. Any increases must be below or equal to the level of inflation or three per cent a year if inflation exceeds three per cent during that year. If there is a negative inflation rage, no price increase will be allowed,” the regulatorexplained.

“The commission also acknowledges that such customers are on the decline, as many others opt for bundled services from both C&W and Digicel. As such, the focus of the PCP now applies to a narrower set ofservices, in tandem with regulatory objectives and technological change, whilst maintaining a framework that remains adequate and responsive,” the FTC added.

During the consultation process, C&W questioned the need for continued regulation of its retail fixed service prices going forward, given those prices have not increased to the extent allowed under the PCP 2016, the FTC said.

However, the regulator insisted that it continued to see a need for price regulation of some of the telecommunication company’s regulated services and that a price cap was the most efficient form of implementing such regulation.(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)