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5 Years of Portability in Romania
Data: 10/11/2013
This year marks 5 years since telephone
number portability has become available in Romania. In these five years an
amount of 1,125,959 numbers have been ported, meaning that 759,273 mobile
telephone numbers and 366,686 fixed telephone numbers have changed their
network but not their holders.
The portability removed an important
barrier to the telephony users’ freedom of choice, enabling them to keep their
telephone number even when they choose to change their network. Since the
introduction of the portability service on 21 October 2008, the Romanians’
interest for this service has steadily grown. Thus, 15,681 numbers were ported
in the last three months of 2008, 180,239 numbers were ported in 2009, another
221,219 numbers were ported in 2010, the amount of ported numbers kept growing
up to 260,256 in 2011, whereas 255,881 numbers were ported in 2012. In the
January - October 2013 timeframe an amount of 192,683 numbers were ported.
“Five years after ANCOM’s introduction of
the portability service in Romania, 5% of the telephony users chose to change
their provider while keeping their telephone number. The percentage is not
high, but what matters is the freedom this service has brought along, the power of negotiation
it has offered to the users in their relation with the operators and the
providers’ extra effort to keep their customers – more competitive offers,
investments in technology and quality, and innovative services”, Mr. Catalin Marinescu, the president of
ANCOM, said.
Out of the total 1,125,959 numbers ported
until 1 October 2013, 759,273 are mobile telephone numbers, accounting
for 67% of the total. The statistical data show that the postpaid users are
keener to port their numbers (approx. 80%) as opposed to the prepaid users
(20%). In the mobile telephony segment, in the five years, Vodafone accepted in
its network 257,958 new numbers, Orange - 249,922, Cosmote - 241,483, RCS &
RDS - 7,791, Romtelecom - 1,400 and Telemobil 719 numbers.
As for fixed telephony, 34 providers
share between them the 366,686 numbers ported so far. Out of these, most
numbers were ported into the networks of RCS & RDS - 101,822, UPC Romania -
89,503, Orange - 72,374, Vodafone - 68,428 and Romtelecom - 15,161. Most
requests for porting a fixed number were registered in Bucharest (115,185
numbers), followed by Cluj county with 25,286 ported numbers, Timis (21,010),
Prahova (18,051) and Galati (14,870), which together stand for more than 50% of
the total ported fixed telephone numbers.
In the five years of number portability
in Romania, 15,020 persons ported on average their numbers in 2009, 18,435 in
2010, 21,688 in 2011, 21,324 in 2012 and 21,500 in 2013.
The Internet users can access the www.portabilitate.ro website to find out the network to which any telephone
number used in Romania belongs, including when it has been ported. The website
also offers details concerning the steps that need to be taken in order to
benefit from such service, answers to frequently asked questions in relation to
porting, and also a few pieces of advice to avoid possible problems that might
occur during the porting.
This year, 72 complaints were lodged by
the users to ANCOM in relation to the porting process. The most frequent
problems signalled in these complaints concerned technical aspects occurred
during the porting and the provision of incomplete/incorrect information on the
porting procedure. The most frequent reasons for which a donor provider
rejected a porting request referred to the inconsistency between the number of
the SIM card and the number for which the porting was requested, the erroneous
entry of the subscriber code or wrong installation address. In these
circumstances, the acceptor provider has to reintroduce the porting request,
with the subscriber’s consent, in order to complete the porting.
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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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