Mexico has become the first Latin American country to introduce portability for fixed and mobile telephony. In a statement, the country's telecoms regulator Coftetel said it had published a decision on portability and it would come into force 165 days after the publication date of 21 January. The law obliges operators to give customers the choice of keeping their number when they switch operators. It says customers should not be without service during the switch for more than 30 minutes in 95 percent of cases and no one should be without service for any more time than 120 minutes. A database will be set up to administer portability cases and Cofetel will have permanent access to the information to monitor whether operators are following their legal obligations and doing so efficiently.
