Chile’s General Telecommunications Act (Ley 18.168) constitutes the country’s foundational top‑level telecom statute. SUBTEL, the Undersecretariat of Telecommunications under the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications, serves as its primary enforcement body. Through resolutions and circulars, SUBTEL administers end‑to‑end rules for bulk A2P SMS, automated outbound voice and wholesale trunk voice, covering numbering planning, transmission compliance, carrier channel qualification and SMPP wholesale interconnection.
Ley 18.168 defines four categories of telecommunications services: broadcast‑reception services, public telecommunications services, restricted telecommunications services and intermediate telecommunications services. SMS and trunk‑voice services operated by mobile carriers and A2P aggregators fall under public telecommunications services and intermediate telecommunications services. Operators providing such services must hold concessions or licences granted by SUBTEL. The law has undergone multiple revisions with delayed‑effective clauses. SUBTEL implements detailed regulatory requirements via official Exenta resolutions. The well‑known Circular N°575/2025 (mandatory 600/809 number‑range rules) is a practical regulatory instrument enacted under this statutory authority.
For A2P service implementation, SUBTEL exercises oversight over wholesale SMPP‑port entitlements of Chile’s four major mobile operators: Entel, Movistar, Claro and WOM. It also imposes obligations on domestic A2P aggregators such as NVIA and i‑ED Chile concerning qualification admission, number‑block allocation, link isolation and local retention of communication logs. Overseas cloud‑based platforms are prohibited from direct gateway interconnection with carriers; traffic must transit through SUBTEL‑licensed Chilean‑resident entities.
The statute establishes explicit sanctioning powers. SUBTEL may impose fines between 100‑10000 UTM, order SMPP‑port shutdowns and revoke assigned number‑blocks. It operates within a multi‑agency regulatory framework together with SERNAC (consumer‑protection authority), ANPD (data‑protection authority) and TDLC (antitrust tribunal).
