21.10.2009
”On average, more than 13,000 telephony users per month have taken advantage of the number portability in the year that has passed since it became available in Romania. I believe that even more users make use of number portability in order to renegotiate their contracts and this reflects in more competition and lower prices for telephone services,” the ANCOM President, Mr. Catalin Marinescu, declared today, one year after ANCOM launched number portability in Romania.
Out of the total of 157,041 numbers ported so far, 67% (105,745) are mobile telephony numbers, and 51,291 are fixed telephony numbers. Furthermore, 5 nongeographic freephone numbers were ported.
5 mobile telephony operators gained new customers, due to number portability: Cosmote – 38,024, Vodafone – 37,653, Orange – 28,154, RCS&RDS – 1,379 and Telemobil – 535. The 34,900 numbers ported to the mobile networks since the last report (30 June 2009) have been taken over, in approximately equal shares, by Cosmote, which gained 11,920 new users, Vodafone – 11,300 and Orange – 10,832. RCS&RDS has doubled the number of its ported customers, up to 1,379, whereas Telemobil added 121 new subscribers, up to 535.
ANCOM data show that subscription-based users port their numbers more frequently than prepaid card users. Thus, out of the total number of ported mobile telephony users, 75% were subscription-based users and 25% were prepaid card users.
From the total of 51,291 fixed telephony numbers ported during this first year, 44% were ported to the network of UPC Romania. Thus, the 26 fixed telephony providers that enlarged their customer base due to number portability are: UPC – 22,582, RCS&RDS – 9,959, Vodafone – 8,847, Orange – 4,657, Romtelecom – 3,185, Dial Telecom – 686, GTS Telecom– 443, New Com Telecomunicatii – 397, Euroweb – 109, Ines Group – 109, Telemobil – 80, Digital Cabla System – 56, Cobalt IT- 50, Media Sat – 33, Atlas Telecom – 22, Telcor – 20, Vip Net – 12, Iristel – 10, Datek Telecom – 8, Necc Telecom – 5, Cosmote – 3, A&G Communication – 2, Air Bites – 2, Canal S and World Telecom Network – 1.
Most fixed telephony numbers were ported in Bucharest (13,077), followed by Cluj (4,067), Prahova (3,170), Timis (2,724), Bacau (2,176), Brasov (2,068) and Galati (2,035).
Out of the over 157,000 users who chose to port their numbers, 1,395 mobile telephony users and 361 fixed telephony users ported the respective numbers several times. Of all the ported numbers, approximately 800 returned to the initial provider.
The first five 0800-numbers (freephone numbers) were ported sometimes in the last trimester; 4 of these – to the network of Romtelecom and one to that of New Com Telecomunicatii.
The maximum number of porting processes that could be operated by a donor provider per day increased to 700 for mobile telephony numbers and to 450 for fixed telephony numbers. These ceilings have not been reached yet, but they could be extended again, if the number of requests will continue surpassing the set processing capacities.
”As you can see, in the very first year, number portability has reached its aim. This results not only from the amount of ported numbers, but also from the statistical data regarding the electronic communications market. The operators adapted their offers, trying to meet their customers’ requirements and offering them various advantages, in order to either keep on or attract them to their own networks. As I have stated before, our data indicate that today the Romanians talk more on the phone, paying much less money, and one of the reasons is the introduction of number portability”, the ANCOM President, Catalin Marinescu, added.
Number portability enables the telephony users to keep their numbers when they switch providers. One can port fixed and mobile telephony numbers, Premium Rate numbers, as well as numbers in the 0800 or 0900 ranges. Porting is possible only within the same category of numbers (fixed-fixed, mobile-mobile). This service has been available in Romania since 21 October 2008.