Information and Communication Technology Services Declared Public and Essential

On August 21, 2020, through the issuance of Decree No. 690/2020 (the "Decree"), the Argentine Executive amended certain articles of the Information and Communication Technologies Law No. 27,078 (the "Argentine Digital Law"), declaring (i) Information and Communications Technologies Services ("ICT Services") - regulated under such law - and access to telecommunications networks for and among ICT Services licensees, as essential public services and (ii) suspending any increase in their prices until December 31, 2020.

Section 1 of the Decree reintroduces into the text of the Argentine Digital Law Article 15 (which had been revoked by Decree No. 267/2015), which establishes that ICT Services, as well as access to their networks for and among the licensees of such services, are essential and strategic public services in competition since the publication of the Decree (published in the Official Gazette on 08/22/20).

According to Section 2 of the Decree, Section 48 of the Argentine Digital Law includes the concept that the authority of application (at present, the Argentine Communications Entity, the "ENACOM" after its acronym in Spanish) must regulate the prices of essential and strategic public services of the ICT Services in competition, as well as those provided in terms of Universal Service, in addition to those determined by ENACOM for reasons of public interest. The new Section 48 of the Argentine Digital Law provides that the prices must be fair and reasonable, must cover the costs of exploitation, tend to efficient provision and a reasonable margin of operation. Furthermore, ENACOM will regulate the basic universal mandatory service that must be provided under equal conditions by the providers and will also issue the necessary complementary rules.

For its part, Section 3 of the Decree incorporates to Section 54 of the Argentine Digital Law, the mobile telephone service, in all its modalities, as a public service and empowers the Application Authority (ENACOM) to regulate its prices.

It is worth clarifying that, until the promulgation of this Decree, the only service regulated by the Argentine Digital Law that was considered a public service was the Basic Telephone Service.

On the other hand, the Decree provides the suspension of price increases or modifications of ICT services (extended to satellite television services by subscription, not regulated under the Argentine Digital Law), from July 31, 2020 until December 31, 2020.