Can you get customers from other phone companies? To what extent are the rates fixed? The doubts that assault customers also reach companies in the telecommunications sector, which on Tuesday were met with a new change in regulations by the Government. Given the new scenario generated, the Executive has promised to hold a telematic meeting this Wednesday afternoon during which the new criteria adopted would be clarified to the companies.

As EL MUNDO has learned, the State Secretary for Telecommunications, attached to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, has arranged a new meeting with the top managers of companies in this sector, which include Telefónica, Orange, Vodafone, MásMóvil and Euskaltel, among others.

There is reason for the explanations, since portability has been allowed again , as it is called the change from one operator to another, although it has been determined that telecos maintain their rates to users who cannot execute any change of company, given restrictions on physical movements. In practice, this would translate into a price freeze during the state of alarm.

The new rule presented by the Government " clarifies that the suspension of portability only affects those operations in which there is a need for users to physically move to stores or for physical interventions to be carried out at their homes." In other words, the Ministry backs down with respect to the law decree of March 17, which specified that "while the state of alarm is in force, all portability operations of fixed and mobile numbering will be suspended."

In the new package of measures announced this March 31, it is also added that " users cannot see their rates increased during the time they cannot request a change of company".

The traditional ones prevailed and now the new ones

This last a priori thesis favors companies that tend to win competitive contracts, as has been the case for MásMóvil , and would harm more established companies, for example the incumbent operator, Telefónica. With the previous criterion, these traditional operators had managed to get rid of a concern for their business, but the new and alternative ones, as they expose in the sector to this newspaper, believed that the state of alarm had been taken advantage of to stop its progression, precisely when they could meet the demands of citizens: more data on the mobile internet, a reinforcement of the landline, lower rates at the height of the ERTE boom ... According to the new standard, you can, for example, receive a SIM card at home , provided a home installation is not required. Thus, portability is again feasible.

Teams bewildered on the phone

Within each of these companies, many doubts have been raised, including many on labor matters , since many of the companies' teams are dedicated to this commercial branch of business and it was not clear to them if they could continue developing their work. It seems clear, at least, that promotions will not be allowed during the alarm state, even if you can change operators.

Maite Arcos, general director of Telecommunications, and Ramón Pérez de Vargas, general deputy director of Customer Service, have coordinated the new meeting with companies in the sector, currently essential for the maintenance of networks at a time of maximum consumption.

Due to these circumstances, the return of portability has been met with criticism such as that of the UGT, which has dismissed this "superfluous" new criterion as "frivolous" . Virtual operators, those who use third-party networks, could end up benefiting from those that provide complete, convergent services, "which at these difficult times are guaranteeing what the government itself has considered an essential service."

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