MTC: Telefonica has exceeded 1,300 sanctions and the renewal of the contract was refused | Economy | Businesses

There are "firm" elements and are based on the concession agreements signed between the Peruvian State and Telefónica two years ago, under which it was decided to refuse the renewal of two concession contracts for the services. fixed and long-distance telephony expiring on 2027, insured Management.pe the Deputy Minister of Communications, Virginia Nakagawa .

The one who had more weight was that the company exceeded the breach threshold established by the contracts themselves, under which the State had the prerogative to refuse renewal of the period requested. The The company has requested the extension of the contracts signed in 1994 from 2027 to 2032.

What elements did the MTC have to refuse Telefónica's request? More precisely and based on the reports of the regulator Osiptel, in the fact that Telefónica registered 1,362 firm sanctions -Between January 1, 2009 and June 27, 2014, evaluation period – of which 777 sanctions concerned sectoral regulations and 585 Peruvian laws.

"When the current management assumes the (MTC) administration, it is found that in 2013, the company Telefónica had submitted its application (for the renewal of both contracts) but that it does not exist. had not been resolved, so we went back to the procedure set out in the contract, so we asked for evaluation reports from Osiptel and at the same time we did other assessments on our side, with which we hadsufficient evidence of conviction declare that Telefónica exceeded the 80% threshold of infringements – as provided for in the contract itself – the renewal of the period requested for the two contracts is therefore not applicable ", he explains. Nakagawa

In this regard, he denied – as Telefonica said in a statement yesterday – that "the rules of the game would have been changed, which would affect the future processes of renewal of concession contracts in the sector".

"This is not true, since the rules of the game have not been changed as the method of renewing concession contracts has been approved by a supreme decree published in 2010, which was not challenged and that was even modified at the beginning of the year, in which it was left more flexibility, "said the deputy minister.

Indeed, the 2010 decree specified that if the company passed with an average penalty of 40%, the contract was not renewed; but this "rule" was changed in 2018 and it was stated that if the average range of sanctions was between 40% and 80%, the state would have the power to assess if it was there. renewed or not, provided that it committed to applying quality indicators, coverage, among other benefits.

"But in the case of Telefónica is not even in this range, it's much more. What has been there is a tank effect Since Telefónica has, for other periods, legally challenged many of the penalties imposed on it, there comes a time when there is no time limit that does not expire. , decisions are made, who had a high degree of accumulated penalties. That's what happened"he explained.

He also added that the methodology used – questioned by the company – had been used in the third renewal (the rejection was the fourth renewal) as well as in the total renewal of Telefónica Móviles, Telefónica Multimedia and other companies. such as Americatel.

"None of these renovations have been challenged, any more than the methodology used has been questioned at the level of the judiciary, but society has every right to complain and we all have the documents to answer, "said the deputy minister.

After this decision, he stated that Fixed telephony users will not be affected by this decision given the fact that the company has signed 17 other current contracts guaranteeing the continuity of this service, which includes fixed telephony, national and international long distance operators; In addition to ongoing renewal processes and some even reach 2029.

"Telefonica has sufficient skills to continue to provide services to users when it comes in 2027 (the date on which the two contracts to which the refusal was refused) will expire, in particular, there will be no possibility of affect users., Telefónica has enough concessions to continue to provide services, its presence is guaranteed in the country, "he explained.

The representative of the Executive noted that if there were not 17 contracts outstanding, the The refused contracts establish that they have obligations for an additional period of up to three years, if the state wishes to guarantee the service. "The implementation of this measure will be the decision of the Peruvian government of these years," he said.