Yesterday, on September 27, 2007, the announcement on the designation of the company that won the international tender for the implementation of a central database for number portability in Romania was published in the supplement of the Official Journal of the European Union. This database shall be fulfilled within the PHARE project “Support to the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) for the implementation of a Central Database System for Number Portability”, a supply project financed by the European Union through the PHARE programme 2005 – “Facilities for special actions”.
The aim of the project is to supply and install all necessary software and hardware support for establishing and running an information system (Central Reference Database) for ANRCTI in order to support number portability implementation and management of the porting process in Romania. As well, it shall ensure a technical training programme for the ANRCTI personnel with a view to successfully develop and implement the procedures for the operation of this database. The information system will include a database with an integrated set of functions for performing operations on the data (database application) and communications solutions (extranet and website).
The winner of the international tender is UTI Systems, which shall cooperate with the sub-contractors Porthus BV Belgium and Microsoft Romania. PHARE financial contribution to this project is 75% of the contract’s value, whereas ANRCTI’s contribution, in its capacity as final beneficiary, is of 25%. The total value of the project amounts to EUR 582,432.98, excluding VAT.
During the first project meeting at ANRCTI headquarters, the representatives of UTI Systems, of the PHARE Central Financial and Contracting Unit (CFCU) and representatives of ANRCTI, the institution benefiting from the project, drew up the implementation methodology and the project schedule, and set out the priorities for the first phase of the project. The project shall be implemented within 6 months and, according to the timetable, the portability solution shall become functional during the first quarter of 2008.
The implementation of number portability is one of the commitments Romania took in accordance with the provisions under Chapter 19 of the negotiation procedures for the accession to the European Union and represents an efficient incentive for competition in the electronic communications sector. Number portability represents the subscribers’ possibility to keep their telephone number when choosing their telephone services provider, thus enabling them to have a greater freedom to choose and requiring the providers to make supplementary efforts in order to keep and attract clients by means of more attractive offers. Starting next year, all Romanian providers of fixed and mobile telephone services shall make available to the public the portability service.