Portable numbers start today
Telephone customers can change companies and keep their phone numbers
Diario Libre
SANTO DOMINGO. The Dominican Republic becomes, beginning today, the fourth country in Latin America and the Caribbean that adopts Number Portability in its telecommunications system, a system which will permit clients to change their telephone service provider and continue to have the same telephone number.
By means of Resolution No. 156-06, the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) approved the General Regulation for Number Portability that is being initiated today, opening a new period of competition among the 17 companies that provide telephone service in the country.
The Indotel president, Jose Rafael Vargas, occupied a large part of yesterday explaining to the population that thanks to the cooperation and support of all of the telephone companies who worked with Indotel, the protocols and technical capacity to carry out Number Portability were completed.
Regarding the benefits that this will provide, the official estimated that Number Portability will provide "a decent, organized, fair and free competition that will always benefit the phone users and that will also permit important investments that will benefit the sector and the Dominican population".
He said that the clients are going to demand better quality of service and competition will increase, and this will result in better conditions for the clients.
One of the steps taken by Indotel to guarantee a good service by the service providers was the signing of a contract, after a public bidding, with the company El Corte Ingles that will administer the database of the portable numbers and oversee the transactions between the company that will concede the number and the company that will receive the number.
El Corte Ingles, a Spanish company, has also worked in Peru and other countries, and it will operate as a neutral organization for the 17 different phone companies and their users.
Steps for making a change
In order to change phone companies and keep the same number, the customer has to go to the company that he wishes to switch to and complete a request for portability with the documentation to contract for telephone service.
Indotel explained that it is only possible to switch fixed land lines in one area of local service and mobile to mobile over the entire country. The only person that can request the portability is the title holder of the phone contract. The client can transfer the number as many times and as desired as long as the contractual obligations are fulfilled with the company that is being abandoned.
Before formalizing the request for a change, the client should cancel any pending debts as well as the contract with the service provider at the time of requesting a switch.
The regulations say that a cancelled number cannot become portable, so that first there must be a request for portability and then the cancellation of the contract.
Once the portability is requested, it can be arranged with the new company that the change over take place during the night so that phone service is not interrupted.
Persons can change from one company to another within 24 to 72 hours, if they have fulfilled the requirements established in their contracts, and the 17 telephone companies that provide service in the country will have the opportunity to participate in the expansion of the sector.
For a normal phone user that requests a switch of a number, the process should not take more than three days. For a business that has various numbers tied to its contract the process might be longer but never more than 10 business days.
The start of the project
The project for Number Portability began in 2006 as part of the commitments that the country undertook as part of the DR-CAFTA agreement with the United States and Central America.
Indotel estimates that number portability is one of the most important steps that have been adopted in the area of telephones to benefit customers, guarantee free competition, and be a tool that will permit the development of important investments in the sector.
"This tool will permit the development of important investments in the sector. The users are going to demand greater quality of the service and competition will increase and this will result in benefits for the customers", commented the president of Indotel.
Vargas congratulated Orange Dominicana, Viva, and Codetel for the investments that they made to adapt to number portability. Number Portability exists in developed nations like the United States, Spain, Puerto Rico, as well as in Brazil, Mexico, Peru and, starting today, in the Dominican Republic.
By means of Resolution No. 156-06, the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) approved the General Regulation for Number Portability that is being initiated today, opening a new period of competition among the 17 companies that provide telephone service in the country.
The Indotel president, Jose Rafael Vargas, occupied a large part of yesterday explaining to the population that thanks to the cooperation and support of all of the telephone companies who worked with Indotel, the protocols and technical capacity to carry out Number Portability were completed.
Regarding the benefits that this will provide, the official estimated that Number Portability will provide "a decent, organized, fair and free competition that will always benefit the phone users and that will also permit important investments that will benefit the sector and the Dominican population".
He said that the clients are going to demand better quality of service and competition will increase, and this will result in better conditions for the clients.
One of the steps taken by Indotel to guarantee a good service by the service providers was the signing of a contract, after a public bidding, with the company El Corte Ingles that will administer the database of the portable numbers and oversee the transactions between the company that will concede the number and the company that will receive the number.
El Corte Ingles, a Spanish company, has also worked in Peru and other countries, and it will operate as a neutral organization for the 17 different phone companies and their users.
Steps for making a change
In order to change phone companies and keep the same number, the customer has to go to the company that he wishes to switch to and complete a request for portability with the documentation to contract for telephone service.
Indotel explained that it is only possible to switch fixed land lines in one area of local service and mobile to mobile over the entire country. The only person that can request the portability is the title holder of the phone contract. The client can transfer the number as many times and as desired as long as the contractual obligations are fulfilled with the company that is being abandoned.
Before formalizing the request for a change, the client should cancel any pending debts as well as the contract with the service provider at the time of requesting a switch.
The regulations say that a cancelled number cannot become portable, so that first there must be a request for portability and then the cancellation of the contract.
Once the portability is requested, it can be arranged with the new company that the change over take place during the night so that phone service is not interrupted.
Persons can change from one company to another within 24 to 72 hours, if they have fulfilled the requirements established in their contracts, and the 17 telephone companies that provide service in the country will have the opportunity to participate in the expansion of the sector.
For a normal phone user that requests a switch of a number, the process should not take more than three days. For a business that has various numbers tied to its contract the process might be longer but never more than 10 business days.
The start of the project
The project for Number Portability began in 2006 as part of the commitments that the country undertook as part of the DR-CAFTA agreement with the United States and Central America.
Indotel estimates that number portability is one of the most important steps that have been adopted in the area of telephones to benefit customers, guarantee free competition, and be a tool that will permit the development of important investments in the sector.
"This tool will permit the development of important investments in the sector. The users are going to demand greater quality of the service and competition will increase and this will result in benefits for the customers", commented the president of Indotel.
Vargas congratulated Orange Dominicana, Viva, and Codetel for the investments that they made to adapt to number portability. Number Portability exists in developed nations like the United States, Spain, Puerto Rico, as well as in Brazil, Mexico, Peru and, starting today, in the Dominican Republic.
Diario Libre
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