WILLEMSTAD – The Curaçao government and the Regulatory Authority of Curaçao (RAC) are being urged to establish a binding implementation date for number portability instead of allowing the introduction of the long-awaited consumer measure to remain dependent on continued preparations and negotiations within the telecommunications sector.
Number portability would allow customers to leave Flow, Digicel or another provider and take their existing telephone number with them to a competing operator.
Although the legal framework for the measure has already been prepared, consumers still cannot use the service.
The amended National Decree on Designated Telecommunications Services entered into force on April 26, 2025. However, the provision concerning number portability was deliberately given a separate effective date that must be established by another national decree.
The previously mentioned January 1, 2026 introduction was therefore a target rather than a guaranteed legal deadline.
RAC's 2025 annual report subsequently confirmed that implementation had not been completed. Further technical integration, testing and operational preparations were still necessary.
The regulator has identified several requirements, including business rules, agreements between operators, an independent porting platform, technical connections, privacy protections and procedures concerning lawful interception.
While those requirements explain why implementation cannot happen overnight, preparations for number portability have been underway since 2016.
The lengthy process has now raised a broader regulatory question: how much influence should telecom companies themselves have over the speed at which a measure intended to increase competition is introduced?
Telecom operators are essential to implementation because their systems must communicate with the porting platform and with each other. But commercially, established operators do not necessarily benefit when dissatisfied customers can leave more easily.
The ultimate responsibility for implementation therefore remains with government and the regulator. The government determines when the legal provision enters into force, while RAC is responsible for coordinating and supervising the regulatory process.
The issue has become more relevant amid complaints about telecommunications services.
According to RAC's 2025 annual report, the regulator investigated service interruptions involving Flow's mobile, fixed and data-center services and dealt with complaints concerning internet quality. The number of complaints investigated increased from six to 50 during 2025, primarily because of technical problems involving Flow.
The issue, however, extends beyond any individual provider.
Without number portability, customers who experience persistent problems technically remain free to terminate their service, but doing so can mean surrendering a telephone number connected to family members, customers, banks, online accounts and security verification systems.
That creates a practical barrier to switching and can reduce competitive pressure on providers to improve service, prices and customer care.
Number portability has already operated for years in Caribbean markets where Flow and Digicel are active, including Jamaica and several Eastern Caribbean states.
The growing call in Curaçao is therefore for authorities to publicly identify what work remains, which party is responsible for completing each outstanding requirement and, most importantly, when the system will become operational.
After years of preparation, the central issue is increasingly no longer whether Curaçao can introduce number portability, but when consumers will finally be given the freedom to use it.