Chile Telecom Industry Surpasses 11 Million Successfully Ported Telephone Numbers

Nota de prensa en español: comunicado de prensa de descarga

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – October 12, 2017 – iconectiv subsidiary Telcordia Technologies Chile S.A. announced today the successful porting of more than 11 million fixed and mobile telephone numbers in Chile since the program began in 2011.

Number portability refers to the ability to reassign a user’s phone number to another service provider. With its number portability solution, Chilean subscribers can easily transfer their phone numbers between landlines and mobile lines, or vice versa, within 24 hours.  Known as “full portability,” Chile is the only Latin American country – and one of only a handful of countries worldwide – to offer the feature. 

“When you consider that there are just 18 million residents of Chile, porting more than 11 million numbers in the past six years is a credit to the ease, efficiency and convenience of the services provided by Telcordia Technologies Chile S.A.,” said Rodrigo Ramirez, undersecretary of telecommunications at SUBTEL, Chile’s regulatory body of telecommunications. “Number portability has become a powerful tool for our citizens especially as the demand for higher quality services increases.”

The iconectiv subsidiary was granted exclusive rights for number portability in 2011 by the Number Portability Committee on behalf of all Chile’s service providers.  Awarded through a new tender process, Telcordia Technologies Chile S.A. recently announced a five-year contract extension as the administrative agency for number portability. 

“A person’s phone number has become a key identity for individuals as well as businesses large and small, so maintaining that connection when moving to another service provider is critical,” said David Wilson, Vice President, Global Sales, iconectiv.  “SUBTEL had the vision early on to provide this service to its residents and the number of ports is indicative of how Chilean residents have fully embraced the program.”

SUBTEL continues to look for new ways to expand and simplify number portability in the region, proposing the implementation of new actions that impact landline procedures, such as allowing users to cancel associated services - such as TV and internet - at the same time a phone number is ported and only having to communicate this change to the new service provider.

“These types of changes will make for a more robust public policy, especially considering the positive impact number portability has had on the Chilean population and its direct influence on the harmony and collaboration among different players in the telecommunications industry – including those that facilitate the technologies and developments that allow the administration, operability and efficiency of number portability to benefit users,” Ramirez said. 

iconectiv and its subsidiaries currently provide numbering solutions in several other large Latin America markets, including Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Mexico, as well in more than a dozen other countries worldwide, including Canada, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tunisia and U.A.E.