Portugal has run out of zero-rated offers.

In 2018, ANACOM issued an ultimatum to MEO, NOS and Vodafone. After monitoring zero ratings and other similar offerings provided by mobile Internet access providers, ANACOM concluded that they violated the Single Telecommunications Market (TSM) Regulation and the Roaming Regulation with respect to network neutrality and roaming, respectively.

Recently ANACOM Approved a draft decision directing Internet Access Service Providers (PSAIs) to stop offering “zero rating” and similar offerings.

Zero rating is a commercial practice used by some Internet access service providers, especially mobile operators, in which the amount of data from certain services and applications is included in the monthly data limit of users.

This type of tariff promotes a wide variety of offers for more price sensitive users, encouraging them to use digital services.

The National Communications Administration (Anacom) has “approved a draft resolution directing PSAIs to stop offering “zero rating” and similar offerings that discriminate on commercial grounds between “zero rating” application traffic and the rest of the traffic," the message says.

This termination, he adds, “must occur within 20 business days of the final decision date for offers available for new subscriptions, and within 90 business days of the final decision date for contracts currently in effect. in execution."

In addition, "PSAI shall, in this sequence, send to ANACOM, within 90 working days after the date of the final decision, details of the changes made to the relevant proposals for agreement with the decision of this body, as well as information disclosed to end users."

In order to mitigate the possible negative impacts associated with this type of offering, “namely in terms of freedom of choice for end users, in the aforementioned 2018 decision, ANACOM has already recommended to approximate traffic volumes between different “plafonds” of use. , preferably by increasing the throughput of the common "plafonds",” he adds.

The draft decision is under public discussion until December 15.