Ruling of the Judiciary puts at risk new minimum internet speed

The Judiciary has agreed with Entel. so the business will no longer be required to provide a minimum of 70% speed of Internet broadband offered to users.

In January 2022, the operator filed an amparo claim against the Congress of the Republic and the Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications (Osiptel) so that two articles of the Law no. 31207 approved by the Legislature.

The main argument that favors Entel is that it would be forced to spend S / 954 million 468,944 in the construction of antennas to comply with the norm, which threatens their freedom of enterprise, specifies the ruling in the first instance.

According to two specialists consulted by this means, the decision of the Power of attorney could render the rule unenforceable.

“The power to make the measurement is not disabled, but the percentage to be able to make the measurements is. So the question is what is to be measured? The norm will continue to exist, but they leave a gap that could end up not applying the norm if it is understood that this specific decision [sobre Entel] becomes generic or if the rest of the companies take the same path”, says Erick Iriarte, a lawyer specializing in digital law.

In this line, Gonzalo Ruiz Díaz, former president of Osiptel, points out that a precedent would be generated for the other operators. He added that from its origin it was warned of the negative effects that a norm of this type would have for the development of the sector.

“Although it seems interesting to have higher upload and download speeds, the truth is that the rule forces operators to allocate more resources to a certain group of users to the detriment of a large group of other users who do not have Internet access and who they need,” Ruiz noted.

The former president of Osiptel believes that the ideal would be for the Congress correct the rule for the benefit of citizens.

This medium consulted with Osiptel about the measures they will take regarding the ruling; however, the institution stated that it has not yet been notified by the Judiciary. While Entel indicated that they are evaluating the actions to follow regarding the judicial resolution.

What changes does the standard imply?

In June 2021, Congress published the rule that seeks to guarantee the minimum speed of internet connection and the monitoring of the provision of the service in favor of the users.

As part of compliance with said standard, the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) published last December 5 Ministerial Resolution 1197-2022-MTC/01.03 with which it established that the minimum speed for effective download in broadband for fixed internet goes from 4 Mbps to 20 Mbps; while for charging it goes from 1 Mbps to 7 Mbps.

For download and upload, in broadband for mobile internet, it goes from 4 Mbps to 5 Mbps and from 1 Mbps to 2 Mbps, respectively.

Although this measure is positive, according to Iriarte, in practice not all users will be able to benefit.

“The diversity of the country demands different qualities because there are different accesses or availability. I know, everyone wants more speed, but sometimes you can’t. As the company is not going to want to default, they are not going to display these qualities in some places”, pointed out the lawyer.

Lima is ranked 11 out of 18 in internet speed

As of November, the speed of fixed broadband internet in Lime is 72.20 Mbps and mobile 14.40 Mbps on average, which places our country in 11th position out of 18 cities in the region, while in the world we are in position 84 and 149 out of 175 cities, of according to opecu.

Valparaiso (Chili) It ranks first in the region and eighth in the world in terms of fixed internet, with 211.37 Mbps, and ranked 6 and 106 in terms of mobile internet, in which it has a download speed of 24, 32Mbps.

The president of Opecu, Hector Plate, He highlighted that, as in previous years, the indicators of Peru do not harmonize with the levels of demand of international competitiveness.