On November 6 of this year, Law 1223, the Convergent Telecommunications Law (the “Law”), came into force after the one year for its entry from its publication in the Gazette, Official Journal Number 204, expired.
This Law represents a significant structural reform of the legal framework that had been in place since Law 200, the “General Law on Telecommunications and Postal Services,” enacted 30 years ago, which introduced a legal framework to regulate telephone, broadcasting, and postal services, establishing principles of competition, licensing, and technical supervision under the authority of the regulatory body.
Law 1223, which is of public order, recognizes the digital transformation and technological convergence that characterizes the current communications ecosystem, where the boundaries between broadcasting, the internet, and mobile services have virtually disappeared. With a broad and updated approach, Law 1223 seeks to integrate all telecommunications services and digital content into a single legal body, strengthening the regulatory power of the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services (TELCOR). This law redefines the rules of telecommunications in an environment where communication is no longer just a service, but a strategic space for technological governance.
This temporal and conceptual distance highlights the existence of two clearly differentiated approaches: one oriented toward market opening and liberalization, and the other focused on comprehensive regulation and supervision of the sector. In this context, and to comply with the new law, it is important to examine the main differences or changes between the two laws, such as institutional powers, the licensing regime, the technological scope, and the level of state intervention in telecommunications management.
The Law is announced as a convergent modernization (fixed telephony, mobile telephony, internet, TV, satellites, etc.). Its preamble highlights objectives such as “technological convergence,” “universal access,” and “protecting user rights.” Below, we review the main topics to be highlighted.
1- Licensing and concession regime: The Act brings together three types of licenses as authorizations for telecommunications services, which are as follows:
- Public telecommunications services license: License authorizing individuals or legal entities to provide public telecommunications services; including, but not limited to, fixed and mobile telephone services, fixed and mobile Internet access, carrier services, data transmission, radio communications, satellite services, and any other public telecommunications services that may arise in the future as a result of technological and market convergence and evolution. In this case, it encompasses several authorizations or permits that, under the previous law (Law 200), were managed independently or, in addition to the license, required some type of additional permit or registration.
- Audiovisual communications services license: License authorizing individuals or legal entities to provide Public Audiovisual Communications Services; These include, but are not limited to, open television, subscription or pay television, sound broadcasting in amplitude modulation (AM) or frequency modulation (FM), as well as any other audiovisual content broadcasting service using any technology or means of transmission, including the Internet. Law 1223 defines “content” as: “Information generated in any mode or form of expression, which can be distributed by any electronic means and is part of a message that the medium or transfer system does not examine or modify, except for conversion to the appropriate format for its transmission.”
In this regard, the previous law—Law 200—did not include provisions related to content generation. Law 1223, on the other hand, proposes comprehensive regulation on this issue. However, to date, there is no additional official information on the regulation that complements the application of this type of license.
- License for the right to use the radio spectrum: License intended for a telecommunications operator or service provider that uses the radio spectrum to provide telecommunications services, which in turn includes the right to install, operate, and exploit the networks, equipment, and radio infrastructure necessary to provide such services. Unlike Law 200, which only required a “permit” for the use of the radio spectrum, the new Law 1223 raises this requirement to a license, for which the necessary application requirements have not yet been determined.
2- Term of licenses: The new Law establishes a range for the term of licenses of between 10 and 20 years, which may be extended; licenses may be transferred or assigned with the prior authorization of the regulatory body, unlike Law 200, which expressly prohibited this.
3- Competition and market regulation: Law 200 recognized free competition as a guiding principle. It prohibited all monopolistic or unfair practices and required dominant operators to provide interconnection at competitive rates. Similarly, Law 1223 maintains the emphasis on market fairness, competition, and openness, but introduces guiding principles such as “equality, non-discrimination, competition, investment, and innovation” and “competitive neutrality,” which seek to ensure that “no operator is above another,” establishing criteria for interconnection and shared use of infrastructure, which was not generally regulated in Law 200. Another new feature of the new law is that it establishes provisions relating to number portability, so that users can keep their assigned number even if they decide to change operators, as a measure to empower users.
4- New mechanisms: Law 1223 establishes specific regulations on satellite signal landing, submarine cable landing and passage, as well as international satellite coordination, determining the need to request the respective authorization from the regulatory body.
5- Inclusion: A new feature of Law 1223 is that it introduces regulations on inclusion and access for people with disabilities and special needs, which was not regulated in Law 200.
6- Regulation on fees: The new Law establishes that for the provision of Public Telecommunications Services and/or Audiovisual Communications Services by subscription or payment, the respective licensee must pay the regulatory body (TELCOR) a recurring monthly regulatory fee, the amount of which will be expressed as a base percentage of the gross income for the corresponding month, for the provision of all public telecommunications services and/or audiovisual communications services by subscription or payment, authorized in its license. This new calculation methodology may not exceed three percent (3%). TELCOR will establish differentiated fees based on the base percentage, so that these fees reflect the market share of Operators and Providers, using their respective Annual Gross Revenue as a parameter.
7- Postal services: Law 200 included a chapter dedicated to the postal service. It declared the postal service to be of “public utility,” prohibited monopolies (except for official correspondence), and guaranteed universal delivery of letters and packages. In addition, it protected the confidentiality of postal correspondence and appointed Correos de Nicaragua as the state administrator of the universal service. Overall, Law 200 regulated the postal service as a basic public service, parallel to telephony, unlike Law 1223, which does not address postal services. Its name and text reinforce that it replaces Law 200 on Telecommunications and Postal Services, but it focuses on convergent telecommunications. In other words, postal services are excluded from this law.
The new law grants the regulatory body the power to issue all necessary regulations to ensure the application of the provisions of the law. In practice, although Law 1223 is already in force, it is currently not regulated in many respects. The regulatory body has reported that it is working on a series of regulations that will complement and regulate the application of the Act, with which it is expected that the elements that are generally regulated by the new Act will be expanded and defined in detail by the additional regulations issued by the regulatory body for such purposes.
The regulatory body published the first six of the nineteen Administrative Agreements with the planned Regulations in La Gaceta, Official Gazette No. 215 of November 18, 2025. These provisions expand the operational framework for the implementation of the Law, with special emphasis on the regimes for Authorization Certificates, management and handling of complaints, approval and importation of equipment, as well as the structure of fees and rates. They also incorporate reinforced guidelines for the protection of user rights and the provision of telecommunications services.
Faced with a legal framework that requires technical adaptation, regulatory compliance, and operating strategies adjusted to the new standards, it is essential to have specialized advice to navigate this regulatory environment with certainty. At Consortium Legal, we assist individuals and companies of any nature, as well as players in the telecommunications sector, in interpreting, implementing, and anticipating the practical implications established in Law 1223.