The Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications (Osiptel) urged the operating companies of mobile telephony to suspend all irregular sale of chips on public roads, since this practice exposes citizens to possible frauds and identity theft. According to said entity, since 2020 it has imposed fines of S/25 million on the companies; however, they persist in this infraction.
“It continues to be verified that the main operating companies continue to sell chips on public roads and it has been verified that they do not comply with the rules for verifying the identity of the parties involved in the contracting,” it said in a statement.
In the absence of compliance, Osiptel announced that it imposed a precautionary measure against mobile operators Sure, Entel and Bitel. This decision arises from the complaint filed by telephone (Movistar) against its three main competitors, alleging that there is unfair competition on sale and contracting of the public mobile service, in addition to the fact that said companies engaged in conduct contrary to corporate good faith.
Telefónica: “It impacts our line sales”
“Today, Osiptel’s administrative body —with the purpose of ensuring healthy competition conditions in the mobile market, avoiding a negative impact on users and contributing to greater digital security— agreed with Movistar and has imposed a measure precautionary measures against mobile operators to curb the outpatient sale of mobile chips and force them to comply with the regulatory framework,” reads the company’s statement.
In addition, they add that this situation has a negative impact on “our sales of mobile lines and our participation in the mobile market.” Let us remember that Osiptel announced that, at the end of the first quarter of 2023, the Claro company displaced its biggest competitor Movistar and became the leading operator in the market for the first time.
According to Osiptel, More than 4,000 mobile services have been detected with inconsistent data such as “Bad boy”, “But calm down, daddy” and “Haland Bolt Advíncula” in the operator’s user registry. These are linked to the commission of crimes of identity theft, computer fraud, fraud and extortion.
“Whoever extorts, obviously, does it from a mobile number that does not have a recognizable owner, that is to say, these lines contracted in the street without greater security protocol can be provided for these serious illegal purposes”, warned the director of Inspection and Instruction of the aforementioned supervisory body, Luis Pacheco Zevallos.
They will debate a project that prohibits the commercialization of mobile services in streets
In the coming days, the plenary session of the Congress of the Republic will debate the bill approved by the Consumer Defense Commission that prohibits the marketing and contracting of mobile services on an outpatient basis or on public roads and assigns administrative responsibility to the representatives of companies for it.
Source: Larepublica
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