TELCOR publishes the complete regulations for mobile number portability in Nicaragua

The Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Posts (TELCOR) published the Number Portability Regulations for Mobile Service, the complete regulation that establishes porting deadlines, user rights, and the regime of infractions and sanctions so that users may keep their number when changing operators. The regulation was issued through Administrative Agreement Number 002-2026 (Reg. 2026-00943), signed on September 28, 2026, by Director General Nahima Janett Díaz Flores and published in La Gaceta, Official Gazette Number 177 on September 29, 2026, starting on page 9429.

The regulation develops the right to portability recognized in Article 95, numeral 3, of Law Number 1223, General Law of Convergent Telecommunications, and enters into force upon its publication. It consists of 77 articles distributed across eleven titles covering definitions and principles, the porting procedure, databases, the obligations of operators and the administering entity, system governance, and the regime of infractions, sanctions, and appeals.

The regulation is published alongside Administrative Agreement Number 001-2026 (Reg. 2026-00942), which approves the Roadmap for the implementation of Mobile Number Portability with a maximum term of fourteen calendar months: Phase 1 begins on October 1, 2026, and the final closure is set for November 30, 2027. The selection and signing of the contract with the Centralized Database Administrator (ABDC) must be concluded by December 15, 2026.

Porting deadlines and change window

• Simple porting: maximum 24 hours, counted from 05:00 on the business day following the formal receipt of the request.
• Multiple porting: up to 2 business days (2 to 10 numbers), 4 days (11 to 20), 8 days (21 to 50), 12 days (51 to 100), and 15 days (more than 100).
• Change Window: technical execution takes place between 00:00 and 05:00 hours on the day set for porting.
• Service interruption: cannot exceed 60 minutes per ported number, with a design aimed at not exceeding 30 minutes; during the three-month Stabilization Period, the limit increases to 120 minutes.
• Portability Validation Code (CVP): the SMS must be sent within a maximum of 10 minutes and the code expires in 24 hours.
• Free withdrawal of the request until 17:00 hours on the business day it was submitted.

User rights and curb on retention practices

• All mobile number portings are free of charge.
• Right of withdrawal (Cooling-off period): 30 calendar days from the effective activation of the service, without reconnection penalties or early cancellation charges.
• Freezing Period: 60 calendar days after the reversal, which, combined with the withdrawal period, complete 90 days.
• Minimum Stay Period (Onward Porting Period): 90 calendar days with the new operator before a new porting.
• Winback Prohibition: the originating operator may not contact the user to retain them from the moment the ABDC notifies them of the request until the expiration of the reversal period, neither directly nor through contact centers, distributors, agents, or marketing agencies.
• Non-consented porting: the operator must verify the form, identity, and the CVP within a maximum of two operating days; failure to do so will result in TELCOR ordering an ex officio reversal, and the operator shall compensate with the equivalent of 30 days of the plan charge.
• Short code 7678 (PORT) enabled on the networks, free of charge, to request the CVP.

Infractions and sanctions

Title X classifies infractions as very serious, serious, and minor. Among the very serious are executing or processing the porting without the accredited consent of the holder, altering or forging the form, identity documentation, or the CVP; recording, analyzing, or commercializing request information for Winback purposes; charging fees or penalties to the user for the process; obstructing the implementation of the system; and failing to synchronize databases, causing the misrouting of calls to emergency services.

Serious infractions include failing to meet the milestones and deliverables of the Roadmap, rejecting requests by invoking non-contemplated grounds, executing routing modifications outside the Change Window without authorization from TELCOR, applying differentiated rates to ported numbers, and failing to implement the launch information campaigns. Sanctions are applied under the terms of Law Number 1223, General Law of Convergent Telecommunications, according to their classification, and review and appeal resources are available against the acts of the regulatory authority.

The regulation directly impacts all mobile telephony users in the country, who now have enforceable maximum deadlines, free porting, and reversal and compensation mechanisms in the face of non-consented portings or undue delays. For operators, the regulation turns portability into a monitored obligation with sanctions and an implementation schedule of fourteen months starting on October 1, 2026.

Source: La Gaceta, Official Gazette, No. 177 of September 29, 2026, section I, page 9429 (official reference: Reg. 2026-00943).