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Osiptel, the Peruvian agency that regulates and supervises the telecommunication market in the country, announced today that starting from January the 2nd, 2017 cellphone operators in Peru are only allowed to activate prepaid cell phone numbers after verifying the identity of their customers with a biometric identification system.
This system is connected to the database of RENIEC, Peru’s National Registry of Identification and Civil Status, and allows to validate the fingerprints of customers.
The Chairman of the OSIPTEL Board of Directors Gonzalo Ruiz Diaz explained that the biometric system was implemented progressively over the past months at all sales point of Claro, Movistar (Telefonica), Entel and Bitel and the cellphone operators aren’t allowed to activate prepaid cellphone numbers without a biometric validation.
Only Virgin Mobile, that entered the Peruvian market just 6 months ago, hasn’t implemented the biometric system yet and is granted a reprieve until June 2017.
The statement unfortunately didn’t provide an answer on how foreigners, that even when having a resident status in the country aren’t registered with RENIEC, can obtain a prepaid cellphone number in the future.
