Government Approves Mobile Infrastructure-Sharing Bill in Ecuador

Ecuador's telecoms council, CONATEL, has approved a mobile infrastructure-sharing bill aimed at encouraging competition in the sector. The law tries to promote the sharing of 2,652 existing mobile towers—1,462 owned by América Móvil's Claro, 967 by Telefónica's Movistar, and 223 by Telecsa (Alegro). Operators will be able to reach voluntary agreements to share infrastructure in those areas where municipal governments do not allow the deployment of additional infrastructure because of bureaucracy or supposed health-related issues. If an agreement cannot be reached, CONATEL will be able to force operators to share their telecom infrastructures. The new legislation is expected to be implemented by the country's telecoms authority, SENATEL.

Outlook and Implications

The bill's main purpose is to stimulate competition in the mobile phone market, which is currently dominated by América Móvil's subsidiary, Conecel, with 8.9 million customers and a 70.16% market share. It is followed by Movistar Ecuador (formerly Otecel) with 3.5 million subscribers and a 27.31% share and Telecsa (Alegro) with 319,146 subscribers and a 2.53% market share. Infrastructure sharing will reduce the cost of rolling out infrastructure, allowing operators to expand their areas of coverage and increase service coverage to areas where mobile phone services are not commercially viable.

Other countries in the region are currently studying the implementation of infrastructure-sharing regulation as a way of increasing mobile penetration levels in the country:

• Chile: In October 2009, the Chilean government approved a controversial antenna localisation bill making mobile infrastructure-sharing compulsory. The new law, which could be applied retrospectively, forces operators to share their towers, including physical supports, with competing operators. The bill also introduces tighter controls over the installation of antenna masts to reduce the visual impact of these installations in congested urban areas. The installation process, so far voluntary and controlled by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, would be supervised by regional planning authorities, which will have the power to approve or deny new installations. The bill will now be sent to the full lower house for debate (see Chile: 5 October 2009: Chilean Lower House Approves Antenna Localisation Bill).
• Brazil: Earlier in December, the Brazilian regulator, Anatel, announced it is considering the introduction of mobile infrastructure-sharing regulation to accelerate 3G network developments in the country. Anatel's private services head, Jarbas Valente, who met with the six national operators last week to discuss the plans, has said that without sharing infrastructure, each of the four main mobile carriers—Vivo, Oi, Claro, and TIM Brasil—would have to deploy 12,000 base stations to comply with the stipulations in their 3G licences. With infrastructure sharing, these targets would be attained faster as they would allow operators to save time and money (see Brazil: 7 December 2009: Brazilian Regulator Considers Mobile Infrastructure-Sharing Regulation).