After a resolution was issued for the reorganization of the 700 MHz band, Telecomunicaciones de Guatemala S.A. and the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office submitted appeals for revocation to the Superintendence of Telecommunications.
The controversy originated after Comunicaciones Celulares S.A. bought from Albavision in 2019 the usufruct titles that are immersed in the 700Mhz band. This transaction was made in the secondary market.
A new regulation is in force that has as one of its purposes to compensate the customer for the poor quality of the connection and to automatically compensate when service failures are prolonged.
The General Superintendency of Electricity and Telecommunications (SIGET) approved the Quality Regulation for Public Telephony and Data Transmission Services, which is intended to improve the service that different companies currently provide.
Radio frequencies will be awarded taking into consideration not only economic proposals but also communicational proposals.
Amendments to the Telecommunications Act were passed by the Legislative Assembly with the consensus of all sectors involved, according to an article in Elsalvador.com.
"... The amendments include the way the frequencies are assigned being determined by the Management of Telecommunications at the Siget, taking into account the target audience and the sector that is looking for a frequency in the radio spectrum, explained the people who were involved in the work on the amendments. For example, one of the new mechanisms involves the competition, which will bring to the foreground, not the economic capacity of the medium, but the communicational proposal presented and its attraction to the target audience. "
Government control over the allocation of concessions and the lack of antitrust rules have set alarm bells ringing for companies in the sector.
The Legislature will have only the three months granted by the Constitutional Court, from now, in order to make amendments to the Law on Telecommunications (LT).
Meanwhile, the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUSADES) studied the Draft Law on Community Broadcasting of the Legislative Assembly and the draft Law on Public Media submitted by former President Mauricio Funes, September 19 2013, both are projects which come under the Telecommunications Law.
A ruling by the Administrative Court found in favor of the state run telecoms company and obliges the regulator to update the relevant market data and level the playing field for all operators.
In the lawsuit, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) argued that the failure to update data on relevant markets and operators prevented the Superintendency of Telecommunications from providing equal treatment to all telecommunications companies operating in the country. Because of this, Crhoy.com reports, "... only the ICE can be fined or receive penalties for noncompliance."
A ruling by the Administrative Court has annulled the General Rules for Municipal Licenses for Telecommunications and is demanding the preparation of a new one in less than three months.
The ruling by the tribunal in a lawsuit filed by Claro in January 2014, indicates that the Municipality of Alajuela must pay damages to the company, after it argued that it was unable to build telecommunications infrastructure in the region of Alajuela because of the regulations by which the municipality was governed.
The essential modernization of technical and administrative rules governing the sector is being hampered by the proposed inclusion of rules to control content.
EDITORIAL
The vaudeville act (from the Royal Spanish Academy: frivolous, light and spicy comedy based around intrigue and misunderstandings) presented and represented by the government of Costa Rica, regarding the development and "socialization" of the proposed new Telecommunications Act , has produced as its first result t a leaderless Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (Micitt).
Caps imposed by the Superintendency on tariffs for telecommunications services restrict competition by preventing operators from offering more expensive packages to more affluent segments.
The telecommunications industry is requesting the freeing up of rates with the aim of letting the market itself be responsible for setting them, with oversight by the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Sutel).
Even though demand continues to grow, operators are not able to grow due to lack of effective competition in the mobile market and delays in the allocation of spectrum.
A portion of customers in the cellular market and other telecommunications services such as internet and cable television are still dissatisfied, but telecommunications companies are not able to increase their services due to the slow rate at which the rules are set and at which infrastructure problems are addressed.
Operators of the telecommunications market in Costa Rica are calling for intervention by the regulator in rates to be removed and for operations to be carried out within a framework of real commercial freedom.
After more than six years of having promoted laws which opened up the telecommunications market in Costa Rica, no operator has the ability to unilaterally set final prices or manipulate conditions in the telecommunications market.
Businesses have denounced the arbitrariness with which municipalities are establishing rates and conditions for granting permits for setting up telecommunication towers.
The Chamber of Information and Communication Technology (Infocom) claims that the municipalities, citing their legal autonomy, are establishing their own conditions when companies request permits to install telecom towers in different areas.
The country was the only one in Central America which had no law on the subject.
Telephone companies have until next September 30 to do everything that the law requires to start operating a number portability system by October 1.
According to Deputy Thomas Zambrano, the law will benefit more than seven million users who are subscribed to three mobile companies including Tigo, Claro and Hondutel.
When portability was allowed in Panama, some expected an stampede of users unhappy with their providers, but the dynamics have been very different.
This same feeling is held by the telecommunications companies in Costa Rica, who could take the situation in Panama as an example, where changes represent only 1.92% of the number of cell phone customers in the country, estimated at 6, 7 million up to the end of 2012.
The supervisor of telecommunications and major operators have agreed to implement number portability in November 2013.
After arguing that it was technically impossible to implement the necessary equipment until March 2014, "the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) agreed to accelerate the purchase of equipment in order to implement number portability, while Movistar and Claro operators relaxed deadlines for developing the system which had been agreed on months ago," noted an article in Elfinancierocr.com.
The state telecoms company says it can not adapt its systems to number portability by March 2014.
The ICE has set up every possible legal and administrative resource in order to prevent the entry into operation of number portability, so that it can perpetuate its business advantage (captive customers) in the light of newcomers. Now it is simply reporting that it is technically unprepared to join the system by which mobile phone users can retain their telephone identification when moving from one operator to another.
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