28.12.2005
The Romanian users will be able to keep their telephone number despite shifts to other operators. This new service is called number portability and will be available in Romania from the beginning of 2007. ANRC is launching today, for public consultation, a draft decision proposing the industry a set of choices for call routing methods, porting management and settling the economic issues concerning number portability.
„The possibility to keep a telephone number when a provider’s subscriber shifts to another operator will break a psychological barrier, will „free” the users. Telephone numbers have become elements of personal identity which users do not give up easily. In many cases, the users will be reticent about choosing new offers in the market, may they seem more advantageous, for the very reason of keeping their telephone numbers, which have acquired a sentimental and economic value over years” the ANRC President, Mr. Dan Georgescu, declared.
A subscriber, shifting to another provider of publicly available telephone services, who „port” his or her telephone number will have the possibility to receive calls from all the people with whom he or she has previously established contact, without being obliged to inform them on the change of the respective number. Number portability will be available upon the subscriber’s request, when the latter wishes to shift from a certain provider of publicly available telephone services (donor provider) to another provider (acceptor provider). By means of a consolidated data base, to which both providers have access, the subscriber’s number may be transferred to the acceptor’s network, despite its initial allocation to the donor provider. The fees charged on the subscribers requesting number portability will be established by the acceptor providers.
The consolidated data base containing information on the ported numbers will be managed by ANRC and will offer non-discriminatory access to all the providers who require information with a view to number portability. At an early stage, the implementation of number portability in Romania will be available for fixed telephone numbers (geographic numbers) within county limits. For example, a fixed operator’s subscriber who decides to shift to another provider will be able to keep his or her telephone number provided he or she stays in the same county of residence.
The ANRC President’s Draft Decision on the implementation of number portability and the Explanatory memorandum are available on the ANRC website. All interested persons are invited to send their comments and suggestions by January 31, 2006. Comments and suggestions may be submitted by mail to the ANRC headquarters (14 Libertatii Blvd., 5th District, Bucharest) or directly to the ANRC registration office or to the closest territorial office of ANRC. Comments may be sent also by fax to +40 21 307 54 02 or by e-mail to consultare@anrc.ro
Additional information on number portability
There are several methods for the implementation of number portability:
– fixed number portability (geographic numbers) – a fixed telephone subscriber will have the possibility to keep his/her fixed telephone number in case of shifting from a fixed operator to another provider of fixed telephone services;
– mobile number portability (non-geographic) – a mobile telephone subscriber will have the possibility to keep his/her mobile telephone number in case of shifting from a mobile operator to another provider of mobile telephone services;
– portability of non-geographic numbers, other than mobile numbers – this category comprises telephone numbers for cost-free services (0800-type), universal access numbers (0801-type) and universal personal numbers (0802-type), as well as premium rate numbers (0900-, 0903- and 0906-type); the users of such services will have the possibility to keep their telephone number when requesting transfer from one provider of publicly available telephone services to another, on the condition of keeping the initial destination of the respective number.
Porting fixed numbers to mobile telephony is not possible.
Directive 2002/22/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council on Universal Service and the users’ rights regarding electronic communications networks and services provides the obligation of the Member States to make available for the users who subscribe to telephone services the possibility to benefit from the number portability service, both for geographic and for non-geographic numbers. These provisions have been transposed into the national legislation by Law no.304/2003 on the Universal Service and Users’ Rights relating to the Electronic Communications Networks and Services.
According to the provisions of art.28, paragraph(1) of Law no.304/2003, one of the ANRC tasks is imposing, on the providers of publicly available telephone services, the obligation to make available for their users, upon request, the number portability service.
By now, most European countries have implemented the portability of geographic and non-geographic numbers, including mobile numbers. Information on the status of number portability implementation in Europe is available in Annex 1 of the Explanatory memorandum to the draft decision under public consultation on the ANRC website.