Fines for telephone companies are updated after 20 years

The sanction cap established by law for Osiptel was updated after 20 years and, henceforth, operating companies that fail to comply with the regulations applicable to the provision of public telecommunications services must pay fines of up to S/4 million 950,000.

The increase in the maximum sanctions will be in force from today after the officialization of the new Law 31839, approved on June 22 by Congress. Minor infractions, which were previously sanctioned with fines of between 0.5 and 50 UIT, will now be punishable by up to 100 UIT (S/495,000). The serious ones, with fines of between 51 and 150 UIT, will be penalized with up to 500 UIT (S/2 million 475,000).

Finally, very serious fines will be punished by Osiptel with up to S/4 million 950,000 (1,000 UIT). In the previous scheme, they received fines of up to 350 UIT.

Rafael Muente, executive president of the Osiptelwelcomed the measure and explained that the previous scale had no deterrent effect, since the fines only represented 0.09% of the amount of operating income of offenders since 1996.

“Those caps, no matter how much the UIT readjusts, were already absolutely tiny. Let’s remember that companies have the right to challenge the fines in the Judiciary, which took many years and, in practice, implied a reduction in the actual amount paid,” he said.

In historical order, Telefónica is the company with the most fines in the last two decades, followed by Claro, Entel and Bitel. Leaving out the ambulatory sales of mobile lines, the biggest problems of these operators are associated with undue charges to users, as well as quality of service.

About 96% of the processes are won by Osiptel in the judicial jurisdiction. In addition, the amount of the fines does not go to the coffers of the regulatory body, but to those of Pronatel, an organization attached to the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC).

“So we don’t have economic incentives to penalize. The idea that “if they fined less, we would provide a better service” is false. We detect a problem, alert the company, give them a period of up to a year to improve, and only if they continue to fail will we fine them,” Muente clarified.

Call waiting

The Association for the Promotion of National Infrastructure (AFIN) expressed its concern that this new scale of fines is accompanied by a policy of “excessive regulation” of Osiptel.

For Leonie Roca, head of the organization that associates the four aforementioned operators, there is a “lack of rigor” to constantly issue standards that has a vertical impact on the profitability of the industry and generates higher costs for users.

“Regulations on regulations are established; if they are not complied with, they will now have increasingly higher fines. It is a tremendous punitive vocation even warned by the OECD”, questions the lawyer.

The key

Punishment. The fines imposed by Osiptel, declared firm in the period 2022, exceed S/85 millions, according to official information. The most common causes are errors in the delivery of information and service interruptions.

The word

Rafael Muente Schwarz, president of Osiptel

“Complaining about the sanctions is diverting the underlying discussion, which is the repeated non-compliance of these companies. We cannot fall for the argument of sanctioning less to boost investment”.