Number portability allows a mobile phone user to change companies and keep the same cell phone number.
The initiative was established by the LUC and the system began to be applied last January.
Since the beginning of the application of number portability, ANTEL registered a positive balance of new clients; however, in the first two weeks of March, that trend reversed considerably.
According to a report by La Diaria, in the first fortnight of March “ANTEL registered a net negative balance of some 800 clients, Claro lost 260 and Movistar achieved a balance of 1,000 new ones.”
Given these data, the legislators of the Broad Front reiterated their warnings that number portability would harm ANTEL.
Urgency?
Indeed, Senator Silvia Nane stated -through her Twitter account- that “ANTEL lost clients in the first half of March due to number portability, and it has not yet begun to be implemented in business clients.”
The Frente Amplio legislator remarked that “the only known impact report indicates that ANTEL may lose 11% of the company’s billing”, before which she asked herself: “Whose urgency was it?”.
Senator Charles Carrera expressed himself in the same sense. “We said it and the government denied it, number portability was created to harm ANTEL.”
“A few days before the referendum with an open result, the powerful multinationals Claro and Movistar go all out and take over the market. All said”, sentenced the parliamentarian, who also remarked that for this reason they must vote for “Yes” in the referendum against the LUC that will take place on Sunday, March 27.
