The Telecommunications Regulatory Board is still in the early stages of developing the regulations necessary to enforce Law 280 that mandates creating a mechanism to register and track customers buying prepaid handsets in Puerto Rico, agency President Sandra Torres said Thursday.
The CTIA-The Wireless Association, which represents the largest wireless carriers in the nation, filed a civil complaint against the government of Puerto Rico asking the U.S. District Court in San Juan to invalidate Law 280 establishing a mandatory registry of prepaid mobile phones in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico’s 81 percent wireless penetration rate is low in contrast to other parts of the world where mobile phones outnumber people, leaving ample space for growth and further contributions by an industry that “could do more.” However, the impact of an industry is not always in the numbers, but in the quality of services it extends to a population.
While it may seem as though everyone on this island has one, or maybe several, wireless phones, the more than 3 million active devices still do not outnumber Puerto Rico’s residents. But the story is quite different when it comes to the U.S. as a nation, where wireless connections have exceeded its population for the first time.
As the stateside wireless industry’s landscape faces the possibility of reshaping to accommodate the proposed merger of two important service providers, the CTIA Wireless Association recently released an overview of the sector’s virtually unstoppable plans to invest and grow.
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