OSIPTEL freezes prepaid balances and orders migration without penalty due to El Niño

The OSIPTEL Board of Directors approved a package of extraordinary measures that obliges operators to suspend the expiration of prepaid balances and promotions, migrate postpaid subscribers to prepaid without penalty, and installment debts in districts declared under emergency due to the El Niño Phenomenon 2026-2027. The decision is contained in Resolution No. 000133-2026-CD/OSIPTEL, signed in San Borja on October 16, 2026, and published this Monday, October 19, in the official newspaper El Peruano (Year XLIII, No. 19584, p. 12). The rules apply only within the geographical areas included in the emergency declarations and their eventual extensions.

The regulation is based on the state of emergency declared by Supreme Decree No. 097-2026-PCM and extended by Supreme Decree No. 124-2026-PCM, published on September 1, 2026, which covers districts in 23 departments—including Amazonas, Áncash, Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Lima, Loreto, Tumbes, and Ucayali—and the Constitutional Province of Callao, for a period of sixty (60) calendar days. It also invokes Urgency Decree No. 008-2026, modified by Urgency Decree No. 013-2026, which established urgent measures facing the imminent danger of heavy rainfall.

The technical support is Report No. 000209-2026-DPRC/OSIPTEL, from the Directorate of Regulatory Policies and Competition, and Agreement 1092/5244/2026 adopted in Session No. 1092/26 on October 15, 2026. The regulator justified the exception to the prior publication for comments and the Ex Ante Regulatory Impact Analysis due to the urgency of assisting the affected population. The reference framework is the Standard on the Conditions of Use of Public Telecommunications Services, approved by Board Resolution No. 000132-2025-CD/OSIPTEL.

Prepaid: the balance clock stops

Article 4 provides that the operating company shall temporarily suspend the calculation of the validity period of balances and promotions for prepaid services whose expirations occur during the application period of the measures in the corresponding geographical area. The same suspension applies to the terms of Articles 51 and 61 of the Conditions of Use Standard and associated contractual terms, insofar as they refer to the suspension or termination of service due to lack of voice traffic, data, or recharge.

Once the period has ended, the calculation resumes considering the time elapsed before the suspension. As an alternative, the operator may choose to provide free text messages (SMS) to the included subscribers.

Postpaid: migration without penalty and installment debts

Article 5 orders the temporary migration to prepaid of the mobile service contracted under the postpaid modality, instead of suspending it or terminating it for non-payment, provided it is technically possible. The operator must inform the subscriber of the migration conditions and the mechanism for returning to the original plan, by any means that leaves a record. The migration comprises:

• Continuity of service under the prepaid modality, through top-ups.
• No application of penalties, migration charges, or additional costs associated with the measure.
• Subsistence of outstanding economic obligations generated prior to the migration.
• Return to the originally contracted plan upon conclusion of the emergency, or suspension or termination as applicable.

Article 6 enables the offering, at the subscriber’s request, of the installment payment of outstanding obligations for telecommunications services, with conditions that must be communicated to OSIPTEL within two (2) business days following its application.

SIM, tethering and temporary prepaid

Article 9 allows for receiving SIM replacement requests through channels other than those provided for in numeral 23.1 of Article 23 of the Conditions of Use Standard, enabled only in the areas declared in emergency via supreme decree and communicated to the regulator within a maximum of two (2) business days. Article 7 exceptionally authorizes temporary prepaid services for affected persons, the termination of which must be executed within thirty (30) calendar days following the end of the state of emergency.

Article 8 flexibilizes identity verification—admitting an additional factor of possession or knowledge when inherence factors cannot be used—and allows alternative mechanisms for the expression of will. Temporary prepaid lines are not counted in the official statistics reported under Board Resolution No. 043-2022-CD/OSIPTEL. Furthermore, Article 10 enables the mobile terminal to act as a modem (tethering) without registration in the Information and Tariff Registration System (SIRT), and Article 11 admits traffic management measures in the event of extraordinary congestion due to force majeure.

Reports, validity and emergency modules

Article 12 mandates reporting to OSIPTEL, within ten (10) business days following each calendar month, the number of services temporarily migrated to prepaid, the temporary prepaid services contracted, and the SIM replacements carried out through exceptional channels; the implementation of each measure must be communicated within two (2) business days. The First Final Complementary Provision sets the validity during emergency declarations and their extensions, and the Second allows the regulator to focus on specific scopes through an Executive Presidency Resolution, for a maximum term of three (3) months.

The Third Provision enables the installation of Itinerant Assistance and Contracting Modules, exclusively in Emergency Operations centers or similar facilities and under the coordination of the competent authority, while the Fourth requires informing subscribers and users about the measures and their requirements through available channels.

The impact is direct for users in areas declared as emergencies: it prevents the loss of balances due to lack of recharge, prevents disconnections and penalties when travel and payment become difficult, and maintains connectivity precisely when communication is critical for the response to the climatic phenomenon.

Source: El Peruano, Year XLIII - No. 19584, Monday, October 19, 2026, Legal Norms, p. 12 (official reference: Resolution No. 000133-2026-CD/OSIPTEL).