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Nearly 1 million numbers ported in 2019

17.01.2020

958,821 telephone numbers were ported in 2019. 93% (895,083) of these are mobile telephony numbers and only 63,738 are fixed telephony numbers.Last year, the monthly average of ported numbers witnessed a slight increase compared to 2018, from 77,543 to 79,902. May, December and January were the top porting months, with 89,584, 88,317, and 88,183 ported numbers. 
 
                                                                                ported numbers/year                monthly average
 
In 2019, 81% of the numbers were ported by residential users and 19%, by business users.
32 fixed and mobile telephony providers were involved in porting processed in 2019.
Since the launch of the number portability service in Romania, on 21 October 2008, more than 6.3 million numbers have switched network. Among these, 5.5 million (86%) are mobile telephony numbers and more than 800 thousand are fixed telephony numbers.
 
Mobile telephony
 
In 2019, 895,083 numbers were attracted to the networks of mobile telephony providers by porting. Most of the porting users (337,784) chose RCS & RDS, 170,528 - Orange, 152,274 - Telekom Romania Communications, 137,385 - Vodafone, and 97,086 - Telekom Romania Mobile Communications.
 
Provider
Mobile telephony numbers ported in 2019
RCS & RDS
337,784
Orange
170,528
Telekom Romania Communications  
152,274  
Vodafone
137,385
Telekom Romania Mobile Communications
97,086
Others
26
 
47% of the 895,083 mobile telephony numbers ported in 2019 were prepaid card numbers.
 
Fixed telephony
 
63,738 fixed telephony numbers were ported in 2019,i.e. 7% of all the numbers ported last year. Most of the ported fixed telephony numbers went to the following main providers: 34,527 to RCS & RDS, 10,488 to Vodafone, 9,954 to Orange, 5,085 to UPC Romania and 1,025 to GTS Telecom.
 
Provider
Fixed telephony numbers ported in 2019
RCS & RDS
34,527
Vodafone
10,488
Orange
9,954
UPC Romania
5,085
GTS Telecom
1,025
Others
2,659
 
In 2019, 14,795 location-independent numbers, freephone numbers and Premium Rate numbers were ported.
During last year, ANCOM received 346 complaints, most of which concerned technical problems occurred during the porting process, delays in the providers’ introduction of messages in the centralized database (BDC) or routing problems. Other problems indicated by the users concerned the cancellation of the porting processes upon the users’ request, and delayed porting processes.
 
Tips on number portability:
  • Telephone number portability offers full freedom of choice to users, as they can keep their telephone number while switching networks.
  • For informing the users, ANCOM created www.portabilitate.ro, where one can find the network of any telephone number used in Romania - whether ported or not – along with advice for avoiding possible problems during the porting process.
  • ANCOM administers and permanently monitors the centralised database (BDC), an IT system by means of which the portability administrative processes are managed (the message exchange between operators during the porting process).
  • ANCOMassists the operators in smoothly running the porting processes, however it cannot approve, reject or cancel porting requests (only operators may take such action, upon the users’ request and in compliance with the legislation in force).
  • Users intending to port their telephone number are advised to carefully check the contract with their current provider; where the minimum contract period has not expired yet, most likely they will have to pay penalty fees for early contract termination, especially if they benefit from a terminal along with the services from the current provider.
  • When porting a mobile telephony number, the users can check the signal quality in the acceptor provider’s network, in their respective interest areas, on aisemnal.ro - ANCOM’s interactive mobile coverage map.