Uruguay’s Regulatory Unit of Communications Services (URSEC) has announced that the government has extended the procedure for the selection of a database administrator which will be responsible for implementing and developing mobile number portability (MNP). Interested parties were given until early May to make inquiries and submit their application, with the opening of the applications and offers originally due to take place on 13 May. However, this has now been delayed to ensure the security and transparency of the process and the new opening date will be communicated ‘in due course’.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Law 19,889/2020, which was approved in July 2020, declares that number portability is a right of users of mobile telephony services, and two months later a committee comprising representatives from industry regulators and mobile operators was established to prepare for the introduction of MNP. Following on from this, the government approved the timetable for the long-delayed introduction of MNP in January, under which tests of the system were expected to begin in July ahead of a commercial launch of MNP on 1 October 2021. Mobile operators will bear the cost of the number transfer process, which should take no more than three days to complete.