La Razon published today a report on how much it cost to use any of the mobile phone companies in Bolivia.

The chart above shows pre-paid rates per minute. There are three companies that have this service; current regulation prevent other companies such as the succesful telephone cooperatives that are nationwide, i.e. COTAS; COTEL et al.

There are three rates per hour time frames and the cost at the right-end of the bars is in Bolivianos (exchange rate these days is around 6.86 Bolivianos to the American dollar; however, most people out in the streets and informal commerce still use the Bs7 = $1 parity.

The Bolivian institution in charge of supervising this service is ATT, they said to La Razon that as of January 2012, prices will be adjusted to the lead/major holder of the market, which happens to be the lowest current tariff: ENTEL.

http://www.la-razon.com/version.php?ArticleId=138675&EditionId=2674

This company was “statized” when current government assumed power. If the tariffs will go down, and the service remains at least the same as of now… then, it will be good for the public. Nevertheless, the government should revise its decision, and let the cooperatives across Bolivia, to expand their services and drive the price for cell phone uses, even lower.