19 May 2011
2 and a half years from the introduction of number portability in Romania, the amount of ported numbers exceeded 500,000. The disparity between the fixed and the mobile ported numbers is relatively the same, 68% (i.e. more than 340,000 numbers) of the total ported numbers being mobile numbers.
The amount of ported numbers has grown steadily since the introduction of number portability service, on 21 October 2008. Thus, more than 15,000 numbers were ported in the remaining two months of 2008 since number portability has become available, more than 180,000 numbers were ported in 2009, whereas, in 2010, the amount of ported numbers rose to 221,219. In 2010, the monthly average amount of ported numbers reached 18,434 and most telephone numbers (25,331) were ported in December 2010. The total amount of ported numbers reached 417,139 as of 31 December 2010.
On 16 May 2011, the amount of ported numbers exceeded the 500,000 threshold. As of this date, 500,224 numbers were ported, 340,047 of which were mobile telephone numbers and 160,177 were fixed telephone numbers. As well, 83,085 telephone numbers have been ported from the beginning of 2011 until now. Out of these, 60,824 were mobile telephone numbers and 22,261 were fixed telephone numbers (this means, on average, more than 18,000 numbers ported per month).
Most fixed telephone numbers were ported in Bucharest (44,635), followed by the counties of Cluj (10,785), Timis (10,756) and Prahova (8,568).
In the mobile telephony field, the statistical data show that postpaid users port their numbers more frequently as opposed to prepaid users. Thus, out of the total mobile telephony users who ported their numbers, 73% were postpaid users and only 27% were prepaid users.
As regards the amount of numbers ported by each mobile telephony operator in their capacity as acceptor providers (numbers ported into the providers’ own networks), the 340,047 ported mobile telephony numbers are divided as follows: Cosmote ported 126,671 numbers, Vodafone – 107,041, Orange – 101,973, RCS & RDS – 3,645 and Telemobil – 717.
The 160,177 fixed telephone numbers were ported into the networks of 31 fixed telephony providers. More precisely, most telephone numbers (54,395) were ported into the network of UPC Romania, followed by RCS & RDS – 38,995, Orange – 27,000, Vodafone – 21,606 and Romtelecom – 10,599.
Number portability enables the telephony users to keep their telephone numbers when they change their provider. Fixed, mobile and Premium Rate numbers (i.e. in the 0800 or 0900 range) may be ported. The porting is possible only within the same category (fixed-fixed, mobile-mobile). The service has been available in Romania since 21 October 2008.
Starting the first semester of 2010, ANCOM publishes statistical data on number portability in the Half-yearly reports on the electronic communications market, available on the ANCOM website, here.