Marketing of Public Services
Expansion Supervision Procedure
Settlement Guidelines
Long-Distance Selection Procedures
Rates Approved
This update provides a summary of a number of recent OSIPTEL (the industry regulatory body) resolutions that relate to various aspects of the telecommunications industry.
OSIPTEL has approved regulations pertaining to the marketing of traffic and/or telecommunications public services. The resolution is intended to regulate the rights and obligations of the economic agents participating in the marketing activity. This relates primarily to the relationship between the concessionaire of the public service and the marketer, and between the marketer and the user. The resolution specifies that only traffic and/or services of concessionaires domiciled in Peru may be marketed.
Any individual or legal entity, whether domestic or foreign, that is duly registered with the Ministry of Transportation, Communications, Housing and Construction is considered a marketer.
According to OSIPTEL, marketing activity is aimed at promoting an efficient use of telecommunications networks. This is because the players in the market, having new customers, may then increase the traffic of the concessionaires selling the service. This in turn allows the concessionaires to use a greater capacity of their networks.
OSIPTEL has indicated that another advantage of the resolution would be greater competition among concessionaires, since lower prices, better sales conditions and higher quality will result.
The resolution details the obligations applicable to:
- the marketers as regards the users;
- the concessionaires as regards the marketers; and
- the marketers and concessionaires as regards OSIPTEL.
Every marketer is under an obligation to inform its users of the rates to which they will be subject. These include:
- the conditions and terms of effectiveness (if applicable);
- the commercial conditions to be applied in providing the service; and
- when and where to file claims.
In addition, there shall be an information and user assistance service available through a toll-free number.
To prevent discrimination occurring betwen different user types or classes, the resolution provides that user claims shall first be settled by the marketers. If there is further dispute, the matter shall then be referred to OSIPTEL.
Expansion Supervision Procedure
OSIPTEL has approved the procedures for supervising minimum expansion plans, in order to ensure continuity of investment and greater availability of telecommunications services to users. Before the issuance of this resolution, the competent supervisory authority was the Ministry of Transportation, Communications, Housing and Construction.
Companies subject to such supervision shall be providers of public telecommunications services. This includes local and long-distance carrier services, fixed and mobile telephone services, pagers and trunk-line services, and cable broadcasting.
The resolution requires operators to report their compliance with the submitted minimum expansion plans when executing relevant concession agreements.
The resolution is based on the following principles:
- cost-efficiency: supervising actions will seek to prevent excessive costs for the supervised companies;
- truthfulness: any information submitted by the companies as a result of the supervising actions must be true and conclusive;
- discretionary authority: this relates to the detail of the work plans and methods to be established by OSIPTEL; and
- transparency: all companies must furnish any necessary information and must act diligently, in line with the goals of the supervision.
OSIPTEL has issued the settlement guidelines of its Administrative Court of User Claims for fixed-telephone billing claims. The guidelines aim to provide telecommunications operators and users with a document that enables them to understand the criteria that the court will adopt in the settlement of claims pertaining to the fixed-telephone service.
The guidelines are based on the criteria considered in previously issued guidelines and apply to the fixed-telephone service. However, the guidelines also incorporate changes that reflect new user regulations.
The guidelines are used by the court to inform the economic agents (users and operators) of the procedure by which claims arising from provision of the fixed-telephone services shall be settled. This should encourage the efficient and diligent behaviour of the agents and also require operators to substantiate their resolutions and submit any necessary evidence.
The guidelines specify the interpretation of the evidence that the court has taken into account when settling claims thus far. Evidence will include:
- damages and suspension of service reports;
- technical inspection records;
- records of average consumption and any relevant variation;
- itemized lists of calls;
- calls investigation reports; and
- records of calls made.
Long-Distance Selection Procedures
OSIPTEL has issued a supplement to the regulations governing pre-selection of the concessionaire for the long-distance carrier system. This is in order to clarify situations that may arise relating to the implementation of the procedure.
The supplementary regulations were issued after the approval of the pre-selection procedure in April 1999, which enabled the user to select (in advance and as many times as the user may desire) a long-distance operator.
The following provisions are relevant:
- Dialling of domestic and international long-distance calls shall continue to be made by direct dialling, operator or any non-exclusive numbering code established by the Ministry of Transportation, Communication, Housing and Construction.
- Information on claims made by telephone, in writing or in person in connection with long-distance calls via the pre-selection procedure must be registered by the long-distance operator. This is in compliance with the OSIPTEL regulations applicable to procedures for handling claims by users of the public telecommunications services.
- Deactivation of service to the user by a specific operator and subsequent activation by a new concessionaire must be made at the same time to prevent the user from being without its long-distance connection for any significant length of time.
The pre-selection regulations state that exercise of the selection right requires that the user not have a payable debt. The supplementary regulations define when a debt is considered 'payable' and when it ceases to be so. A 'payable debt' is a debt for long-distance service that has not been paid on the due date (that appears on the relevant invoice). A debt ceases to be considered payable if the user pays the bill or files a long-distance billing claim.
Additionally, if the user changes its telephone number, whether at the request of the company or of the user, the supplementary regulations provide that pre-selection of the line with the new telephone number must be made with the same long-distance operator as before.
Unification of charges
This resolution refers to the unification of the maximum rate for calls completed via local fixed telephone networks and is effective as of January 1 2001. This means that the price paid by one telephone company to another for the use of its local fixed telephone network will be the same whether the call originates from, or ends at, the network of a fixed local, long-distance or mobile operator.
Since October 1998 the maximum interconnection rate for default or completion of a local fixed call was $0.029 per minute. However, in August 2000 OSIPTEL issued an order reducing that rate for service between local fixed networks to $0.0168 per minute.
As a result of this resolution, the reduction in interconnection rates was extended to interconnections between fixed and long-distance/mobile networks. This was as a result of several new operators requesting that OSIPTEL implement a flat rate, in accordance with the Guidelines for the Opening of the Telecommunications Market.
According to OSIPTEL, this should allow operators to reduce their interconnection costs and gain competitive advantage. This in turn should allow them to reduce the rates charged to users.
Another effect of the resolution is that, as of January 1 2001, operators may settle their interconnection rates for reciprocal traffic calculated per second, and not rounded to the nearest minute.
National long-distance rates
OSIPTEL also approved the average maximum interconnection rate for national long-distance relay carrier telephony with all public telecommunications services.
This rate, which is effective as of January 1 2001, was set at $0.07151 per minute for traffic between networks of the same or different operators within the same local area.
According to OSIPTEL, by applying this rate, together with the rate referred to in the resolution mentioned above, long-distance operators should incur lower costs for providing national long-distance service. Furthermore, OSIPTEL believes that by promoting competition, this supplementary measure should permit a reduction in national long-distance rates, which will ultimately benefit users.
Mobile termination charges
OSIPTEL has approved a resolution establishing the rate for calls terminating in mobile networks. This rate will be applicable for each minute of traffic for calls terminating in mobile telephone networks (cellular technology), trunking service and personal call services. The average rate will be $0.186 per minute, calculated per second, effective as of January 1 2001.
This resolution modifies the calling party pay system and states that rates of calls made to mobile cellular, trunking and personal call services networks will be set by the operator of the service from which the call originates. The exception is for national long-distance calls, where the charge will be set by the long-distance operator.
For further information on this topic please contact Luis Miranda at Miranda & Amado Abogados by telephone (+51 1 222 4747) or by fax (+51 1 222 7400) or by e-mail ([email protected]).
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