Court Nixes Cell Approval

The Constitutional Chamber (Sala IV) of the Supreme Court has struck down a provision of the telecommunications regulatory agency (SUTEL) requiring all cell phones connected to the ICE network to be those approved by SUTEL.

The provision meant that, in most cases, an ICE customer had to discard his old cell phone and buy a new one. The decision came on an appeal filed by an ICE customer who argued that the provision violated free trade.

Although no longer a monopoly, ICE is still the only game in town until newly licensed Claro and Movistar can construct their infrastructure. SUTEL had decreed that only importers, manufacturers and their representatives could sell the approved phones here.

If, for example, a potential customer bought his phone on line, he would be denied service. A customer who may have purchased his phone outside the country and imported it privately also was denied connection. This was clearly a method to force customers to buy here and sooner or later would have brought international protests due to conflicts with provisions of the CAFTA free trade pact.

The same restriction applied to the iPhone. After bringing it into the country, iPhone owners found that SUTEL approved only 4.1 firmware—which cannot be unlocked here, a Catch 22.