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Subject: Getting a Mortgage to Pay the Phone Bill
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Date: 19 Mar 90 05:32:26 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 184, Message 4 of 8


In Argentina, rampant inflation is a fact of life. But even so,
Argentines were shocked by phone bills which went out the second week
of March that were as much as seventeen times higher than the month
before.

One resident of Buenos Aires, Antonio Lecce, paid a phone bill of
$3.60 for February, and got a $40 bill this month. That amounts to
about half a month's pay for the average citizen of that South
American country.

Rates went up March 9 by what the government-owned telephone
administration (Entel) said was an average of 433 percent. But bills
reflect much higher rates. The latest bimonthly service charge plus
200 calls, for example, increased by 1,682 percent, to 31,816
australs, or about $6.75.  A typical family's bill increased nearly
ten times to $43.80, which is prohibitively high for most people in
Argentina.

The government's explanation is that rates were eroded by inflation,
which skyrocketed by 12,000 percent in the past year. The overall
inflation rate in January alone was 79 percent, and 62 percent in
February.

Also, rates had to be increased to allow a profit at the
deficit-ridden Entel, which the government is trying desperately to
sell.

Entel director Maria Julia Alsogaray said, "People who cannot afford
the new rates can give up their service, and share with someone else."
Her comments, along with the increases outraged Argentines who live
with substandard phone service to begin with.  The phones go dead when
it rains, and even in nice weather it is difficult to get a dial tone
or the right connection on the first try.


Patrick Townson