The Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Omar Paganini, said this Wednesday at a press conference that the implementation of number portability it will give users a “right” and “more freedom”, who does not expect that Antel have “a great prejudice” and that “There are few people” who change company.
This Wednesday number portability began to be applied. This new system It will allow users to change phone companies without losing their number.
The government made the decision to continue with its implementation despite the fact that the Single Telecommunications Union (Sutel) tried, unsuccessfully, to stop this process in court. The guild’s intention was to achieve a postponement until after the March 27 referendum in which the 135 articles of the law of urgent consideration (LUC) will be put to the public for consultation, among which is number portability.
The head of the Ministry of Industry considered what is a day “To celebrate”, since number portability is “giving more rights to people”.
In that line, he highlighted the telephone number as “Part of the digital identity”. “We will all have experienced it, if we change our number, the problems that this brings with all the applications we use on the cell phone that have to do with the number. It is almost an identity card, so to be able to give it to people, is to give them a right and give them freedom”, He highlighted.
Paganini also stated that number portability makes companies “Take better care of your customers” insofar as “The reasons that avoid changing cell phone companies are diluted”. And I add: “Surely there will be better contract conditions, promotions and also a better service, and that is also good for people”.
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Number portability
Antel situation
When asked if the implementation of number portability could lead to loss of customers to Antel, Paganini said that “That could happen or the opposite could happen”.
“Seeing what has happened in five Latin American countries, according to a 2020 study, in general people decide by price and coverage. Antel has the best coverage of the country Y is competitive in prices, so we do not see that it is necessarily going to have a great detriment”Said the hierarch.
And he added: “If one studies what happens in the world with number portability, Few people change, but they earn more in terms of customer care by companies”.
In Sutel it is criticized the implementation of number portability for understanding that It benefits multinational telephone companies (Claro and Movistar) to the detriment of the state one (Antel).
In the document presented by Sutel before the Justice for request that the process be stoppedAmong other arguments, the report made by the Antel director representing the Broad Front, Daniel Larrosa, who based on technical studies maintains that The implementation of number portability would generate losses for the state company of between US $ 123 million in a “minimum scenario” and US $ 425 in a “maximum scenario”.
The president of Sutel, Gabriel Molina, had also alerted, in dialogue with The Observer, than with number portability Antel could divest 11% of its corporate clients, which would mean losing US $ 20 million per year.
