Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones

The Plenary of IFT approves to submit to public consultation the number portability Regulations Draft Project

• The Plenary of IFT seeks to eliminate requirements that could delay or impede users to exert their right to keep their telephone number when they subscribe to another network carrier
• The Plenary has solved on four interconnection disagreements among telecommunications public networks concession holders

The Plenary of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) in its XIV regular meeting approved a public consultation to the Draft Agreement by which the Number Portability Regulations are issued and the Fundamental Numbering Technical Plan and the Fundamental Signaling Technical Plan are modified, first published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on June 21^st of 1996.

This public consultation makes enhances transparency and promotes the participation of the public in the processes to issue general provisions by the IFT; furthermore, the comments made in this consultation will reinforce the decision-making process of the IFT, which will include the comments and opinions of academics, members of the industry, experts, and the society at large on the document submitted to consultation, so that the resulting Draft Project is duly examined by the Plenary of the IFT for its eventual approval and subsequent publication.

With the issuing of the Portability Regulations the IFT will fully comply with the provisions of the

Transitory Thirty-Eighth Article of the issuing Decree of the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law, which sets forth that the obligation of this regulatory body is to issue, within the sixty business days following the effective date of such Law the necessary administrative rules to eliminate requirements which may delay or impede number portability.

Thus, the Regulations Draft Project which will be available to all interested parties for consultation on the website of the IFT for a period of 10 (ten) business days from its publication, establishes rules to ensure an effective portability within a period not exceeding 24 hours and promotes the formalities for the portability of phone numbers so this process can be made via electronic means, so that users freely and effectively exercise their right to choose the service provider of choice, keeping their phone number.

To have an appropriate implementation of number portability under the terms of the Regulations Draft Project, it is also necessary to modify the Fundamental Numbering Technical Plan and the Fundamental Signaling Technical Plan to incorporate the technical parameters required to have a successful implementation of the new applicable regulations.

The Plenary of the IFT also solved four interconnection disagreements among telecommunications public networks concession holders:

1) The interconnection fee that Megacable Comunicaciones de México, S.A. de C.V. shall pay to Radiomóvil Dipsa, S.A. de C.V. for switched termination services in mobile users under the arrangements “Calling Party Pays” will be $0.3214 pesos per minute, effective as from December 31st of 2012.

2) The interconnection fee that Cablevisión, S.A. de C.V., Bestphone S.A. de C.V. and Cablemás Telecomunicaciones, S.A. de C.V. shall pay to Radiomóvil Dipsa, S.A. de C.V. for switched  termination services in mobile users under the arrangements “Calling Party Pays”, as well as the fee that Operbes, S.A. de C.V. and Cablemás shall pay to Radiomóvil Dipsa for the same item under the arrangements “Calling Party Pays in Mexico” will be $0.3214 pesos per minute, from January 1st to December 31st of 2012.

Moreover, the fee that Radiomóvil Dipsa shall pay to Cablevisión, Bestphone and Cablemás for termination services in fixed telephone users will be $0.02432 pesos per minute, effective from January 1st to December 31st of 2012.

3) The interconnection fees that Avantel, S. de R.L. de C.V. and Axtel, S.A.B. de C.V. shall pay to Iusacell PCS, S.A. de C.V., Comunicaciones Celulares de Occidente, S.A. de C.V., Sistemas Telefónicos Portátiles Celulares, S.A. de C.V., SOS Telecomunicaciones, S.A. de C.V., Telecomunicaciones del Golfo, S.A. de C.V., Portatel del Sureste, S.A. de C.V. and Operadora Unefon S.A. de C.V., for switched termination services in mobile users under the arrangements “Calling Party Pays” and “Calling Party Pays in Mexico” will be the following:

• From January 1^st to December 31^st of 2012: $0.3214 pesos per minute
• From January 1^st to December 31^st of 2013: $0.3144 pesos per minute

4) The interconnection fee that Alestra S. de R.L. de C.V. shall pay to Comunicaciones Celulares de

Occidente, S.A. de C.V., Sistemas Telefónicos Portátiles Celulares, S.A. de C.V.,

Telecomunicaciones del Golfo, S.A. de C.V., Iusacell PCS, S.A. de C.V., Iusacell PCS de México, S.A de C.V. SOS Telecomunicaciones, S.A. de C.V., Portatel del Sureste, S.A. de C.V. and Operadora Unefon S.A. de C.V., for switched termination services in mobile users under the arrangements “Calling Party Pays” and “Calling Party Pays in Mexico” will be $0.3214 pesos per minute, from January 1^st to December 31^st of 2012.