04.06.2021

The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) highlights that providers cannot reject a user’s request for porting their telephone number, with a few exceptions that are clearly provided by law: the porting request filed by the user contains mistakes, the subscriber’s identification data are incorrect or do not match the number envisaged in the porting process, or the donor operator no longer provides the telephony service through the respective number. The acceptor provider can reject the porting request only where it does not provide the type of service requested by the user.

ANCOM’s verification campaign

With a view to checking the providers’ compliance with the legal provisions on number portability, ANCOM conducted in April 2021 a “mystery shopping” verification campaign on the main electronic communications services (Vodafone Romania S.A., Orange Romania S.A., RCS & RDS S.A. and Telekom Romania Mobile Communications S.A.). Four inspection teams were deployed in this campaign. During two consecutive days, the inspectors carried out simultaneous verification actions on each of the above-mentioned providers, in the following cities: Bucharest, Pitesti, Ploiesti and Targoviste. Acting as regular customers, the inspectors requested the provider representatives in the verified workstations to port a telephone number from a subscription-based contract to a prepaid card.

One of the 16 verification actions (four on each provider) ended in one porting request being rejected. The respective workstation belonged to Telekom Romania Mobile Communications S.A., and the company was sanctioned by contravention fine amounting to RON 15,000, since this provider repeatedly breached its obligations. The other three providers verified were not found in breach of the legal provisions.

What are the steps for porting one’s telephone number?

When a user chooses to port their telephone number, he/she must fill in a request asking for a transfer of the number, which must be filed with the provider to whose network they want to switch. Once the request has been filed and accepted by the acceptor provider, the contract with the old provider (donor provider) is automatically terminated, without special intervention from the user.

Warning! Porting one’s telephone number to another opertor does not cancel the obligations assumed when the contract with the initial operator has been signed. For example, if the porting is requested before the expiry of the minimum contract period, the user may have to pay an early termination fee, while the standing invoices must be paid. The same principle applies where a user has bought devices or equipment along with the electronic communications service.

Therefore, the users should check whether the minimum contract period with the donor provider has expired by the date of the requested porting process.

When can a porting request be rejected?

The acceptor provider may reject the porting if it does not provide the type of service requested (for example, prepaid telephony services).

The donor provider can reject the porting request under the following circumstances:

·        the request is not accurately filled in.

·        the subscriber’s identification data are incorrect, or they do not match the number envisaged in the porting process.

·        the number falls into one of the categories of numbering resources that lie outside the scope of the portability process.

·        the donor operator no longer provides the telephony service through the respective number (for example, due to contract termination following a users’ request filed prior to the porting request); thus, a user intending to port their telephone number should NOT request the termination of the contract signed with the donor provider.

·        the number in the porting request has not been used for calls on the donor provider’s network.

·        the SIM card has been blocked as lost/stolen.

The donor provider cannot reject the porting request by invoking the following:

·        the user has standing debts to the donor provider.

·        the minimum duration of the contract concluded with the donor provider has not expired.

·        the service provision though the respective number has been suspended.

About what, how and where you can complain

If you encounter difficulties in a porting process, you can file a complaint with the acceptor provider (in charge of carrying out the porting process) as well as you can complain to ANCOM, by following the steps detailed here.

Further details on the porting process are available, in Romanian, on the website www.portabilitate.ro.