Romanians will be able to demand compensation from fixed and mobile telephone operators for each day of delay in porting a telephone number or interruption of communication services, if they last more than one working day, or if the porting of telephone numbers is done without their consent.

• Portability – is a service that allows the subscriber to keep his phone number when he decides to change the provider of electronic communication services.

Communications Regulatory Authority (ANCOM) released a draft decision for public comment Thursday that makes major changes to that process, including the ability for users to seek compensation from phone carriers.

• VIEW THE DRAFT DECISION AND MOTUTAL RECORD HERE

Offered compensation: 10 lei/day for mobile phone subscribers and 5 lei/day for prepaid and fixed telephone connections

The draft decision, which is subject to consultation, provides that compensation should be provided according to the number of days of delay in porting or interruption of services, if they exceed one working day, or, in the case of porting without the user’s consent, according to the number of days during which the ported number is not was active in the donor provider network.

• Compensation must be provided for each number for which the relevant situations have arisen.

The authority noted that a certain ratio of the amount of compensation to the average monthly income received by providers on the retail market of fixed or mobile communications is appropriate.

• “Thus, the amount of compensation established for one day is approximately 30% of the average monthly income at the level of 2021 for each category of services: subscriber mobile communication (amount of compensation: 10 lei/day), mobile communication based on a prepaid card (compensation amount: 5 lei/day), fixed telephone connection (compensation amount: 5 lei/day).
• Keeping the ratio of average monthly income between both mobile and fixed services, as well as between subscriptions and cards, the compensation/day established in the case of mobile services provided on a subscription basis is twice as much as established in the case of prepaid cards. and in the case of fixed services.”, shown in the explanatory note to the ANKOM project.

Who will pay the compensation: Situations, procedure and terms

In the situation in which the transfer is carried out, for delays in transfer processes exceeding one business day and for exceeding the interruption period of one business day, the supplier who will be required to be compensated is receiving provider (the provider to which the number is transferred)which is responsible for carrying out the transfer process.

The receiving provider provides, upon request, compensation to subscribers in the following situations:

• a) the transfer was made after the expiration of one working day from the agreed transfer date;
• b) the interruption in electronic communication service during the transfer process exceeded one business day.

For the purpose of compensation, the agreed transfer date is the date notified to the subscriber by the receiving provider to carry out the transfer, associated with the first transfer event verified in the transfer process.

A special situation is to initiate porting processes without the consent of the subscriber who is entitled to request porting, and the provider to whom the compensation claim should be made in this case is the one acting as donor provider (the provider from which the number is ported) in the process of transfer, not requested by the subscriber.

Providers can establish in contracts for the provision of electronic communication services that the total compensation provided in all cases is limited to:

• a) the full price without discounts for 6 months of the subscription used by the subscriber on the date of transfer, regardless of how many numbers are included in the subscription;
• b) 100 lei for each prepaid card.

If electronic communication services are sold as a bundle together with other services or terminals, the subscription price corresponds to the price applicable to the separate sale of the electronic communication service, if any, or, otherwise, to the price applicable to the separate sale of the electronic communication service , having the same characteristics.

To limit compensation, the full cost, without discounts, of a monthly subscription cannot be less than 10 lei.

Compensation is provided within a maximum of 60 days from the date of receipt by the provider of the claim for compensation of the managed subscriber, if the provider has not established their phased provision in the contract concluded with the subscriber. The installment period cannot exceed one year.

Compensation may be provided in the form of a discount, separately included in the bill, in the case of services on a subscription basis, or in the form of a credit, if the services are prepaid.

Within no more than 60 days from the date of termination of the contract for the provision of electronic communication services, the supplier is obliged to pay the unpaid compensation to the subscriber.

The possibility of charging a fee for porting numbers will be canceled

Current regulations require each originating provider to bear its own costs associated with implementing number porting.

Porting costs for each number may be reimbursed by the donor provider from the recipient provider within the limits provided for in Decision no. 144/2006 (€4.64 for each ported number, in the case of porting geographic numbers, location-independent numbers and non-geographic numbers, except those for electronic communication services intended for the public provided at mobile points, or EUR 2.13 in the case of non-geographic numbers for services provided to mobile points).

• “Prior to the entry into force of the amendments to the primary legislation, receiving providers had the right to set tariffs for the provision of number porting services, the requirement of regulatory legal acts is accessibility. However, in practice, receiving providers usually do not charge a porting fee.
• Both decisions no. 144/2006, as well as the current CPC, including the transfer request form, contain provisions on the possibility of charging a transfer fee by the accepting supplier,” the explanatory note also states.

In a draft decision submitted for public discussion, the Authority proposes to revise these rules in such a way as to remove the reference to the possibility of charging subscribers some porting tariffs in accordance with the current provisions of the primary legislation.

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