The countdown that nobody wants to win
Before June 30, 86 out of every 100 people with a mobile phone will have to register their data. Experts already see the consequences: fewer users and plummeting sales.
When bureaucracy slows down technology
Registration requirements are driving people away from buying new lines. So says The Competitive Intelligence Unit (The CIU). Its director, Ernesto Piedras, is clear:
“It’s not so easy to add lines anymore, because… it takes time and, for operators, it takes money to register people.”
The math is brutal. Many people have a cell phone for work and other personal purposes. Will everyone register? Stones doubt:
“If we are talking about 150 million to 161 million (of lines), we can think of a ‘line decline’; many people could think: ‘I’m going to let the line die, I don’t care that much…’.”
The numbers that don’t add up
Here comes the good thing. The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT) reports only 20,227 registered lines. But according to The CIU there are between 150 and 161.7 million active lines.
Let’s do quick math: if there are 150 million and you subtract those registered… there is 130 million missing. With three months ahead, the arithmetic just doesn’t cut it.
Piedras says it bluntly: extending the deadline would require the Legislature to modify the written law. “We are in that uncertainty,” he admits.
Meanwhile, the market was growing healthy: 9.5 million new lines in 2025, with a penetration of 124.2%. More than one line per person.
Now that growth is on pause. Or worse: at risk of collapsing when the clock strikes June 30.
