02.09.2021

 

A porting request can only be cancelled with the provider to which the requester intended to port his/her telephone number, no later than 24 hours before the term set for performing the porting.

Cancellation of the porting

The cancellation of the porting is done through a request which must be submitted, preferably, to the operator’s working point where the porting was initially requested. If the user wishes to request the cancellation of the porting process, he/she must bear in mind that the timeframe therefor is extremely short. The request must be submitted no later than 24 hours before the term agreed for performing the porting. If this term is exceeded, the porting will be completed.

Under normal conditions, the whole porting period spans to 3 working days. If the moment initially agreed for porting is on a Monday, and the time interval transmitted by the acceptor provider is Monday morning, the cancellation request must be submitted on Thursday evening at the latest (in the previous week). If the time interval is in the second half of the day, the request must be submitted no later than in the first part of Friday.

The standard form which must be filled out in order to initiate the porting cancellation may be obtained from the acceptor provider (the new provider), this being available on the provider’s webpage, or from www.portabilitate.ro. 

The provisional number

Throughout the porting process, the provider receiving the number may assign a provisional number to the user so he/she could already benefit from the new offer. The acceptor provider must however also ensure the possibility of porting a telephone number without the assignment of a provisional number.

If the user accepts the provisional number, when submitting the porting request, he/she has two options if the porting is not completed: he/she can either continue the contractual relationship with the acceptor provider which will provide services by means of the provisional number (in other words, enter into a contract with this provider) or give up the provisional number and implicitly the associated contract. The acceptor provider has the duty to inform the users on these options. 

Obligations of the providers involved in porting

The telephony operators must offer the users, cost-free, all the information related to the porting process, including through the customer care service and their webpages. Also, at their working points, the operators have the obligation to make available to users the required porting forms, as well as the procedure for the submission, validation and cancellation of the porting request.

In 2020, the Authority received 144 complaints in relation to the porting process, 34 of which concerned the cancellation of the porting process and 12 the assignment of provisional numbers. In this year’s first half, 78 complaints have been lodged, of which 22 referred to the porting cancellation and 3 to the assignment of provisional numbers.

ANCOM advises the users to carefully study the contracts they sign and pay special attention to the documents related to the porting process, in particular the section concerning the assignment of the provisional number, and, not in the least, to ask for the copies of the signed documents (porting requests, cancellation requests, contracts etc.) from the acceptor provider and to keep them. 

About what, how and where can one complain

If they encounter difficulties during the porting process, the users can complain to the acceptor provider (which is also responsible for performing the porting), but they can also turn to ANCOM, taking the steps detailed here.

Further information on the porting process is available on www.portabilitate.ro.