ANCOM has launched for public consultation the proposal to lower the tariffs that the acceptor supplier owes to the donor provider for each ported number. "Taking into account the significant volume of numbers ported on a national level in recent years and the fact that these tariffs were set in 2010, we propose reducing the tariff for each fixed number ported by 44%, from EUR7.8 to maximum EUR4.4, the tariff for each mobile number ported by 66%, from EUR5.6 to maximum EUR1.9. Reducing the costs of acceptor suppliers could stimulate operators to launch more attractive offers on the market to gain new users or to keep their customer base", said Sorin Grindeanu, president of ANCOM.

Methodology for calculating wholesale charges

ANCOM has set the maximum level of the proposed porting tariffs by benchmarking, based on information collected from 25 of the 37 member countries of the Independent Regulators Group. The current tariffs were set by ANCOM in 2010, also based on benchmarking.

The wholesale tariff for porting fixed numbers

The proposed EUR4.4 tariff for porting geographic numbers, location-independent numbers and non-geographic numbers, other than those for publicly available electronic communications services provided at mobile locations has been determined based on benchmarking, as the average of wholesale number porting tariffs charged in Austria, Bulgaria, The Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey, weighted by the population.

The wholesale tariff for porting mobile numbers

The proposed EUR1.9 tariff for porting non-geographic numbers for publicly available electronic communications services provided at mobile locations was determined based on benchmarking as the average of the wholesale porting tariffs charged in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, France, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia and Turkey, weighted by the population.

Number portability and the wholesale porting tariff

Number portability ensures the users’ complete freedom of choice, as it enables them to keep their numbers while switching the electronic communications service providers. For information, ANCOM has created the website www.portabilitate.ro, where the users can find out the network of any number used in Romania, even if it has been ported.

The wholesale tariff for porting numbers is intended to cover the donor provider's costs incurred by porting the number to the acceptor provider. The porting costs are generated by the technical steps (porting the number in question), operational and administrative activities, as well as by updating the local databases used and the centralized database.

The public consultation process

The draft decision on amending number porting tariffs is available, in Romanian, here. The interested persons are invited to submit their comments and suggestions, by 22.02.2018, at the ANCOM headquarters (2 Delea Noua Street, Bucharest 3), directly to the ANCOM Registry Office or by means of the ANCOM regional divisions. Comments may also be sent by fax to +40 372 845 402 or by e-mail to consultare@ancom.org.ro.