”Starting today, a complete directory of the telephony subscribers in Romania and a directory enquiry service will be publicly available. Thus, all the interested persons will be able to perform a one-stop search for the fixed, mobile and fax numbers of the users who accept to be included in this directory”, the ANCOM President, Mr. Catalin Marinescu, declared in the press-conference organised by InfoClick S.A., the company designated to provide these services.
The directory enquiry service and making available the directories of subscribers are included in the scope of Universal Service and aim at facilitating the end-users’ access to details such as the telephone or fax number or numbers of the users of pre- or post-paid publicly available telephone services, may they be legal or natural persons. The online directory of subscribers is publicly available, free of charge, on www.118800.com.ro. Additionally, a directory enquiry service is available, for a fee, by dialling the short national number118 800.
In Romania, for the next two years, the company InfoClick S.A. has been designated the Universal Service provider for the directory enquiry service, in association with Newsphone Hellas SA Atena Grecia – Bucharest Branch,. As a Universal Service Provider, InfoClick has the obligation to develop, update monthly and administrate the complete database, which should include the fax and telephone numbers as well as certain identification data of the users of publicly available telephone services in Romania (irrespective of whether the payment for these services precedes or follows the service provision) who give their consent thereto. Furthermore, for the assessment of the minimum quality indicators, the Universal Service provider must send ANCOM a half-yearly statement on the values of the indicators established upon the tender.
The Universal Service provider has the right to ask for the compensation of the net cost of providing the service within the scope of Universal Service, as the case may be. In this situation, the amount that ANCOM can compensate shall not exceed the difference between the costs incurred with obtaining the information required for creating and updating the complete database, from the telephone service providers – who assign numbers to their subscribers – and the amount InfoClick is committed to covering from its own sources. The compensation of the net cost shall be requested at the end of each fiscal year during the designation period.
All the telephony providers that assign telephone numbers to their subscribers (monthly subscription- or prepaid card users) have the obligation to make available to the Universal Service Provider and to the other providers of directory enquiry services the databases with the details of their own users who have consented to being listed in such a directory, in compliance with the provisions of Article 11 of Law no.506/2004 on processing personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector. The users have the right to decide on the introduction of their identification data, free of charge, in the directory of subscribers, as well as on the categories of data to be included in the respective directory.
”I ensure the citizens that they can check these data, request the rectification, deletion or introduction of their contact details in the complete directory of subscribers, free of charge, at any moment. Moreover, I advise all the users of fixed or mobile telephone networks, may they be subscribers or prepaid card users, to ask their provider on this directory and on their status. Companies should be the first to show interest in this directory, since it is an effective and cost-free tool by means of which their customers or business partners can reach them”, Mr. Marinescu added.
In the European Union, 118(xyz) numbers are used for directory enquiry services, the providers using them also to offer also ancillary services, such as information on the subscriber’s field of activity or profession or directory enquiry services in international auxiliary languages. In Romania, ANCOM initiated the procedure of allotting national short numbers for European harmonised services within the 118(xyz) range in November 2008. So far, nine companies have been granted a licence for the use of this type of numbering resources.