Press Releases

Numbering and portability legislation has been amended

13.08.2015

 
 
The Romanian National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) has decided on amending several normative acts that regulate the domain of numbering, technical resources and portability. The measures are aimed at facilitating the porting process, respectively at creating the framework for the set up and development of new electronic communications service providers.
Due to the fact that porting rates significanty grow when telephony providers launch attractive offers, ANCOM decided upgrading the donor providers’ minimum daily processing capacity for porting requests, both as regards fixed telephony numbers (from 200 to 300 for telephony numbers in Bucharest and the county of Ilfov and from 100 to 150 for the rest of the counties), and as regards mobile telephony numbers (from 1,200 to 2,000). Moreover, ANCOM provided a new mechanism to further increase this processing capacity, should these new minimum limits prove insufficient. 
Consequently, the daily processing capacity of the centralised database that supports the number porting processes, administrated by ANCOM, grows from 6,000 ported numbers to minimum 12,000 ported numbers per day.
In order to allow the electronic communications providers and ANCOM to adapt their systems to the new regulations, these will enter into force starting from 1 November 2015. 
Furthermore, ANCOM created the regulatory framework so that the providers benefitting from a numbering transfer from a licence holder implement number portability, as well. So far, only the licence holder was to implement the portability functionalities for the provider to which it transferred the numbers. Although this possibility has not been excluded, the beneficiary providers will be enabled to implement number portability, which would allow them to act more independently in the market, as to the licence holder.
Another amendment consists of laying down the conditions in which the providers benefitting from  a numbering transfer may also transfer the respective number to other electronic communications service providers. By creating this new framework, ANCOM aims at offering the electronic communications service providers a wider range of options for access to numbering resources and encouraging the market entry of new providers, that could cover specific, previously underserved market segments. Thus, the market entry of operators such as – for example – simplified mobile virtual network operators (simplified MVNO) or aggregators (MVNE) will be facilitated.
The Decision adopted encloses the provisions of six normative acts previously issued by the Authority: Decision no. 321/2008 on the allocation and use of national short numbers for public interest services or for general interest services, Decision no. 376/2013 on the procedure of numbering licence issuance, Decision no. 379/2013 on the allocation and use of national short numbers for public interest services or for general interest services, Decision no. 380/2013 on the allocation and usage of certain technical resources, Decision no. 144/EN/2006 on the implementation of number portability and Decision no. 3444/2007 on adopting the technical and commercial conditions for the implementation of number portability.
The Authority will send the new decision for publication in the Romanian Official Journal, and its provisions will enter into force within three days since publication, except for the measures indicated above as entering into force on 1 November 2015. 
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