According to data published on Tuesday by the Telecom Arbiter (ANCOM), between the beginning of this year and October 15, Romanians ported more than 1.2 million phone numbers to other networks, most of them mobile.

From the beginning of this year to October 15, 1,200,975 phone numbers were transferred, including 1,158,896 mobile phones and 42,079 landlines.

During this period, RCS&RDS received 702,048 mobile phone numbers in the network through porting, followed by Vodafone with 218,054 ported numbers, Orange with 135,335 numbers, Telekom Romania Mobile Communications with 84,983 numbers and Orange Romania Communications with 18,380 ported numbers.

For fixed telephony, RCS&RDS got 20,968 numbers on the network, Orange 11,059 and Vodafone 3,341 numbers.

In the 15 years since the launch of the portability service, which gives users the freedom to choose the most suitable offer for their consumer needs while keeping their phone number, almost 11 million phone numbers have been transferred within Romania’s fixed and mobile phone networks.

Transfer process – changes introduced by the Communications Code

The new European Electronic Communications Code introduced a number of important changes to the portability service in order to increase the benefits for users, namely:

• Return of unused credit: Providers whose services have been terminated shall, upon request, return unused credit to consumers who have paid for services in advance. If it is stipulated in the contract, for the return of unused credit, a proportional and appropriate fee may be charged in relation to the actual costs incurred by the supplier to perform this transaction.

• Submission of a transfer request by means of remote communication: The Requesting Supplier may receive a transfer request by means of remote communication, provided that it has the necessary means to carry out the necessary checks remotely to accept the request: If the person requesting the transfer is the contract owner or its legal representative and if the number for which the transfer is requested is the subject of a contract concluded between the subscriber and the donor provider.

• Changing the conditions for assigning a temporary number: Through reports received from subscribers, ANCOM found that if porting was not completed, they often found themselves in the undesirable situation of being left with two contracts, one with the donor provider (related to the number to be ported) and one with the receiving provider (related to associated with the temporarily allocated number).

Currently, if the transfer is not completed, the receiving provider must, within 30 days from the last day of the transfer interval, ask the subscriber for consent to continue the contractual relationship through the temporarily allocated telephone number, otherwise the contract related to this number is terminated by law, without any formalities.

• Providing compensation: The receiving provider provides compensation to subscribers on demand in the following situations: if the activation of the number was carried out after the expiration of one working day from the agreed porting date or if the electronic communication service was interrupted, during the porting process, for more than one working day.
• The donor provider provides, upon request, compensation to subscribers in cases where the transfer was made without their consent.
  
  

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