Ecuador Operator Wins Reprieve From Forced Shut-Down

Ecuadorian judge Felix Herrera has provisionally suspended the decision by the telecoms supervisory body Suptel to sanction mobile operator Porta for exceeding the tariff limit established in its concession contract, local daily El Comercio reported.

Suptel discovered that staff manning Porta's customer service line were quoting rates of US$0.76 a minute for off-net mobile-to-mobile calls and US$0.83 for mobile-to-fixed calls, but the company's concession contract prohibits it from charging more than US$0.50 plus taxes per minute.

Porta, whose concession is due to expire in 2008, appealed to judge Herrera at a court in Guayaquil on grounds that Suptel has not been able to prove whether the quoted rates were actually billed. Furthermore, Suptel did not consider the possibility that Porta's customer service staff may have given erroneous information, which according to Porta representative Daniel Bernal was indeed the case.

Suptel's sanction required Porta to suspend all mobile service for half an hour on October 21. In the capital Quito, the service was to be interrupted from 6:30-7:00am while in the cities of Guayaquil and Cuenca, the service was to be suspended from 8:00-8:30am.

Porta is a unit of Mexican giant America Movil.

Posted to the site on 18th October 2007