Ecuador Awards Mobile Number Portability Contract

Ecuador's telecoms regulator, Senatel has awarded a contract to manage mobile number portability between the country's three mobile network operators. The contract has been awarded to Systor Telconet JR Electric Supply, a joint venture between Norway's Systor Tronheim and local firms, Telconet and JR Electric Supply.

The contract is valid for five years and MNP is due to be launched by October 12th 2009.

Secretary General of the regulator, Jaime Guerrero said "We hope to provide portability to make the market more competitive and the benefits will translate into reduced costs with improved quality of service."

At a press conference last year to announce the plans for MNP, the regulator estimated the cost of implementing the platform at being around US$50 million over 2 years.

The country has three mobile network operators, Conecel, Movistar, Telecsa, and figures from the Mobile World database notes that the country ended last year with 11.8 million customers. This represents a population penetration level of 84%.

On the web: Mobile World - Senatel

Posted to the site on 15th April 2009