Movistar Offers Compensation for Service Failure

Ecuadorian mobile telephony operator Movistar has announced it will grant a US$3 credit to prepaid and postpaid subscribers in compensation for a service interruption on December 5, local news site Confirmado reported.

Total compensation is expected to amount to US$8mn and will be credited between December 12 and 31.

On the day of the service failure, users were unable to make and receive calls, as well as access voicemail and other services.

The failure affected chiefly subscribers in capital Quito and in the north of the country. However, Movistar decided to compensate subscribers nationwide.

According to local telecoms supervisory body Suptel, service was affected for approximately nine hours on December 5. Suptel asked the operator to present a report on the causes of the problem. Movistar attributed the interruption to a technical fault with software.

Ecuadorian authorities have been tightening their grip on mobile operators this year pressuring them to provide compensation for such failures.

Suptel has threatened to end the contract of Porta, a unit of Mexican operator América Móvil, which it accuses of negligence regarding a technical problem in service that affected more than 6,000 subscribers on September 25 and has said that the compensation offered by Porta was insufficient.

On Friday telecoms sector administrator Senatel requested 30 more days to reach a decision on what action to take against Porta.

Posted to the site on 11th December 2007