Telecommunications The price of mobile phones rose by 3.5% in 2023 and became more expensive for the first time since 2018

The price of telephone services in Spain increased by 3

Telecommunications The price of mobile phones rose by 3.5% in 2023 and became more expensive for the first time since 2018

The price of telephone services in Spain increased by 3.5% in 2023, which means breaking the downward trend that has lasted since 2018, as revealed by the latest data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The INE statistical series indicates that in 2022 the price of these services experienced an interannual reduction of 6.4%, while in 2021 the reduction was 1.4%, in 2020 it was 7.3% and in 2019 it was 0. 6%. In 2018, their price had risen 1.5% compared to the previous year, according to Europa Press.

Meanwhile, packaged telephone services, those that can include internet or pay television (or both), became more expensive by 4.6% in 2023 - in 2022 they had fallen by 0.7% in year-on-year terms - , which represents the largest increase recorded for this category within the INE statistical series, which in this case starts in January 2017.

Likewise, in 2023 fixed telephone services became 1.3% more expensive in Spain compared to the previous year, compared to the stagnation in prices that was recorded between 2022 and 2019 (there was only a slight rise of 0.2% in 2020).

Regarding mobile phone equipment, a statistical category in which the INE also includes cases, chargers, speakers, SIM cards, selfie sticks and other accessories, the year-on-year reduction registered in 2023 was 9.3%, a decrease more than three percentage points higher than that experienced in 2022, of 6%.

In that sense, mobile phone equipment has been experiencing year-on-year price drops since 2017. Specifically, that year they fell by 12.2%, in 2018 by 16.5%, in 2019 by 13.9%, in 2020 by 9. 7% and in 2021 5.1%.

In this context, the trend in the price of personal computers is similar to that of mobile telephone equipment and has also accumulated drops since 2017.

In 2023 its price fell by 5.9% in year-on-year terms, in 2019 by 9.6%, in 2021 by 1.2%, in 2020 by 7.8%, in 2019 by 5.5%, in 2018 by 7.6% and in 2017 5.5%.