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The First Year of Portability in Romania: 157,000 Ported Numbers
Data: 10/21/2009
”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.
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Do you wish to port your number? Here are 10 tips you must know:1. Find out about all the providers’ offers and choose the one that suits your best.2. Carefully read your contract with the current provider, looking for termination clauses or for special interruption provisions.3. If you use a prepaid card, the remaining credit cannot be transferred.4. Fill in the standard porting request, which is available either here, or at one of the acceptor provider’s offices.5. Fill in the porting request carefully. If you do not provide full and accurate details, the system will reject it.6. S...
1. Can I port my telephone number within the same network?
No. Portability enables you precisely to change the network, while sticking to your telephone number. Portability allows a number to “leave” the initial network and to be used by the same user in another network.
If you do not wish to change the network, but change the contractual clauses, you need to discuss it with your service provider and negotiate the terms that suit you best.
2. If I change the network, do I keep the current “prefix” of my telephone number?
When ported, the 10-digit telephone number remains unc...
The launch of number portability has made network identification based on the number format impossible. Therefore, to avoid situations in which the users could unawares pay a different tariff than the one they know, each call to a number that used to be in the origination network of that call, but was subsequently ported, is preceded by a beep sound.
This beep sound allows the caller to end the call, find to which network the number has been ported and whether the tariff of a call to that number is different from the known one.
Some users are not aware of this sound signal that mak...
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