ANRCTI issued the licences for the use of national short numbers for harmonised services of social value 116000 and 116111, awarding Romtelecom the right to use these numbers.
According to the licence provisions, the operator will assign the two national short numbers for harmonised services of social value as follows: 116000 – to the Association ”The Romanian Centre for Missing & Sexually Exploited Children”, and 116111 – to the Association ”The Child Helpline”.
These numbers must be activated within six months from the allocation date. Throughout the licence validity period (until July 25, 2018), the holder of the licence, Romtelecom, has the obligation to ensure that the services are available 24/24, 7/7, at a national level, that information regarding the availability of services are at hand and that, during the period when the services are not available, the callers receive information on the starting date.
By the short number 116000, The Romanian Centre for Missing & Sexually Exploited Children will provide emergency assistance for missing children, will handle calls about missing children and will forward them to the Police. Moreover, at this number, a person who takes care of a missing child will find guidance and support, while useful information for the investigation of the missing child case may be provided, in view of tracking the respective child.
The service offered by the Association ”The Child Helpline” at 116111 will consist of telephone lines that provide support to children who need care and protection, directing them towards speciality organisations and resources. Furthermore, this service will ensure the children’s possibility to utter their fears, to talk about issues that affect them directly and to find help, in emergency.
Access to these services is cost-free and unconditional.
These numbers have been allocated based on the score resulted from the duly filled in assessment grid corresponding to the requests for a licence for the use of numbering resources (LURN). This grid provides five assessment criteria: nature of the service provided by the requester, potential degree of availability of the harmonised service of social value, requester’s experience in the implementation of national short numbers, capacity of the provider of harmonised services of social value to ensure the implementation of the service for which the number is allotted and to guarantee compliance both with the specific usage terms and with the deadline for activating the number. A partnership with an operator of harmonised services of social value must be established prior to the operator’s submitting the allocation request.
No operator has requested the allocation of the short number for harmonised services of social value 116123 (emotional support helplines), this number being still open for allocation.