Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(LIP-ir) -- It was announced today that beginning in 2010, cellular phone users in Peru would have the right to mobile number portability, which allows cellular phone users to keep their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.

In a supreme decree, Peru's Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MTC) announced that mobile network operators in Peru would be obligated to provide users with full mobile number portability.

Peru's MTC also established that users who wished to retain their mobile phone number when changing from one operator to another would not be charged for the service, stating that mobile number portability was a right users were entitled to.

The norm approves the "conditions for the implementation of number portability in the country's mobile services" and is an important step in guaranteeing that it will effectively enter into force in 2010, said Peru's Ministry of Transportation and Communication.

It was also announced that it was necessary to create an agency to penalize operators that did not comply and to make sure that users' requests, to retain mobile phone numbers, were not ignored.

Allowing full mobile number portability free of charge is a way of creating more competition between mobile network operators, said Peru's MTC.