El Salvador’s telecoms regulator, Superintendencia General de Electricidad y Telecom (SIGET), has reportedly issued regulations that will govern the introduction of fixed and mobile number portability (NP) project in the country, domestic news source El Mundo reports, citing SIGET’s head Blanca Noemi Estrada Coto. The official said that the cost of the process will be absorbed by the recipient operator, and will not be passed on to users. Ms Coto disclosed that a technical committee tasked with defining the basis for the tender to contract a database management company will be selected this week; the search for a portability administrator will take place before the end of 2014. Further, Ms Coto revealed that telcos must adopt the number portability software in January 2015, with the service set to launch commercially the following month.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, legislation calling for the introduction of NP was first passed in June 2010, but SIGET subsequently postponed its implementation, stating that domestic telecoms operators were not prepared for the change, while a lack of consensus over who will fund the process has led to further delays. In July 2014 it was reported that SIGET planned to finally introduce number portability, with a tender to be launched in August to select a portability administrator; the regulator however missed this self-imposed deadline.