Peru's transport and communications ministry MTC has issued a supreme decree obliging mobile telephony operators in the country to implement number portability (NP), MTC said in a statement.
In September MTC published a proposed decree laying out the conditions for operators implementing NP and opened a public consultation period. NP is expected to be fully implemented in the country by 2010.
MTC said that decree 040-2007, which was published on November 19 in the official gazette El Peruano, will promote competition in the local mobile market resulting in benefits for users.
The decree establishes that NP will have no cost for subscribers as it considers number portability as a right for the user.
Local telecoms regulator Osiptel will be in charge of determining the economic conditions for the implementation.
The bill stipulates three stages of implementation, to be overseen by MTC and Osiptel. The first will see the drawing up of the technical guidelines for NP infrastructure. This phase is due for completion by June 30, 2008.
The second phase, in which operators should describe to MTC all technical and operational conditions of the selected technical solution, is due to start on July 1, 2008 and run until December 31. The final stage involves technical tests for the implementation of number portability, to be carried out from January 1, 2009 to September 30, 2009.
Posted to the site on 20th November 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/27568.php