Data: 10/20/2011

Three years from the introduction of number portability in Romania, the amount of ported numbers exceeds 600,000. The disparity between the fixed and the mobile ported numbers remains relatively the same, 67% (i.e. more than 411,000 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, more than 180,000 numbers were ported in 2009, and more than 220,000 in 2010.
Since the beginning of 2011 a total amount of 195,129 numbers have been ported, out of which 132,224 mobile and 62,905 fixed telephone numbers. This means a monthly average of more than 19,000 ported numbers. As of this date, a total of 612,268 numbers were ported, 411,447 of which were mobile telephone numbers and 200,821 were fixed telephone numbers (this means, on average, 15,533 numbers ported per month).Most telephone numbers (33,341) were ported in August 2011, when one business user alone ported the highest amount of numbers ever registered so far: 4,500 fixed telephone numbers.
Most fixed telephone numbers were ported in Bucharest (54,618), followed by the counties of Cluj (13,160), Timis (11,488) and Prahova (10,341). In terms of geographic location of the acceptor providers, Vodafone ported most fixed numbers in Bucharest, RCS&RDS in Cluj, Orange in Timis and UPC dominated Prahova county.
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 in the 3 years from the introduction of number portability, 74% were postpaid users and 26% were prepaid users.
As regards the amount of numbers ported into the operators’ individual networks, Cosmote ported 147,061 numbers out of the total 411,447 mobile ported numbers, Vodafone 137,659, Orange 121,716, RCS & RDS 4,292 and Telemobil 719.
The previously mentioned 200,821 fixed telephone numbers have been ported into the networks of 28 providers of fixed telephone services. Among these, most numbers have been ported by UPC Romania – 59,610, RCS & RDS – 49,713, Orange – 37,717, Vodafone – 33,611 and Romtelecom – 10,959.
In the 3 years of portability, ANCOM received 586 complaints and intimations concerning various malfunctions faced during the porting process. Most of them denounced technical problems and requested additional information on the porting procedure.
The most frequent reasons for which a donor provider rejected a porting request referred to the inconsistency between the series of the SIM cards and the numbers for which the porting was requested, the erroneous entry of the subscriber code, the inconsistency between the subscriber type and the phone number and the wrong installation address. In the majority of cases where the donor provider rejects a porting request, the latter is reintroduced in the central database with the correct data, allowing for the porting to be completed.
In 2011, the average porting duration was 9.33 days for a fixed telephone number and 9.23 days for a mobile telephone number. The ANCOM Decision no.1382/2011 on amending and completing certain regulations in the field of numbering and technical resources provides that the porting process is to be completed in maximum 3 working days from the submission of a porting request accepted by both the acceptor and the donor providers, starting on a date to be subsequently established.
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).