The Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications (Osiptel) reported that, to date, they have identified up to 44 towns on the north coast and center of the country totally disconnected from the mobile service. In this sense, he indicated that the operating companies cannot make collections corresponding to the period that the interruption lasts, when the causes are not attributable to the subscriber or user.
In this regard, the director of Inspection and Instruction of Osiptel, Luis Pacheco, said that companies are prohibited from making collections that are not supported by benefits actually made.
“The operating company is obliged to return to the subscribers the sums corresponding to undue or excess payments, even when they do not request it, including the respective interest,” he said. He added that this is added to the cases of service interruptions, even when they are due to acts of God or force majeure, as in the present, in which effects have been generated by the occurrence of natural disasters.
How should the return be made?
Refunds are made in the same currency in which the service was billed, so the operating company is prevented from doing so through a different form of payment.
“The return must be made by the operating company, no later than the receipt corresponding to the second immediately subsequent billing cycle or, in the event that the return is not possible through the service receipt, within two months” Pacheco specified.
Affected localities
The Osiptel Monitoring Center, until noon on Thursday, March 16, 2023, detected 249 base stations (antennas) that remain out of service, of which 174 interrupted, totally or partially, mobile telephone and internet services in 158 towns in Áncash, Lima, La Libertad, Piura Lambayeque, and Tumbes, and more than 209,000 people were affected.
From the reports from the companies received by the regulatory entity, up to 44 localities with total affectation of the mobile service were identified, which harmed the mobile communications of more than 16,500 people. “This means that all the companies present in these locations are without service,” Pacheco stressed.
Source: Larepublica
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