21.10.2015

 

In the 7 years since the launch of number portability, 2,327,058 telephone numbers changed operators, without changing users. 1,798,488 of these are mobile telephony numbers and 528,570 are fixed telephony numbers.

Since 21 October 2008, when the service was launched in Romania, the number of users that chose to port their telephone number has been on a constant rise. The amount of numbers ported each year since the launch of number portability is presented in the table below:

 

77% (1,798,488) of all the numbers ported during October 2008 – October 2015 are mobile telephony numbers. In the mobile telephony segment, Vodafone kept receiving the most ported numbers - 509,318, followed by Orange - 452,551 numbers, RCS & RDS - 447,209 numbers, Telekom Romania Mobile Communications - 373,669 numbers and Telekom Romania Communications - 14,975 ported mobile telephony numbers.

As regards the fixed telephony, 38 providers received the 528.570 ported numbers. Out of these, the most numbers were ported to RCS & RDS – 149,941, UPC România – 121,612, Orange – 110,299, Vodafone – 95,028 and Telekom Romania Communications – 21,864. According to the place of residence, the largest number of users who ported their fixed telephony numbers was registered in Bucharest – 164,910, county Cluj – 32,689 county Timis – 26,471, county Prahova – 25,704 and county Galati – 22,542 ported numbers, which together stand for more than 50% of the total ported fixed telephone numbers.  

The statistics corresponding to 2015 show that number portability registers an accelerated growing trend. Thus, from January to October 2015, 554,985 numbers were ported, as compared to 564,648 numbers ported throughout 2014. The monthly average of ported numbers corresponding to the first 9 months of 2015 is 58,650 as compared to 47,054 in 2014 and 22,844 in 2013.

More than 89% of the numbers ported between 1^st of January 2015 and 16^th of October 2015 are mobile telephony numbers i.e. 494,397. Out of these, almost 50% were ported in the RCS & RDS network – 233,546, while Vodafone received 111,170 new ported users, Orange – 83,520, Telekom Romania Mobile Communications – 55,436, and Telekom Romania Communications – 10,691.

Most of the 60,588 fixed telephony numbers ported in 2015, until October 16^th, were distributed among the main providers as shown below: RCS & RDS – 18,780, Vodafone – 13,866, UPC România – 10,235, Orange – 9,390 and Telekom Romania Communications – 1,474.

The portability offers telephony users full freedom of choice, since it allows to keep the telephone number while changing the telephony provider.

ANCOM makes available, for information, the www.portabilitate.ro website, where users can find out the network to which any telephone number used in Romania belongs, including when it has been ported. The website also offers details concerning the steps that need to be taken in order to benefit from such service, answers to frequently asked questions in relation to porting, and also a few pieces of advice to avoid possible problems that might occur during the porting. The pieces of advice are based on real situations, brought to the Authority’s attention by users.

The persons interested in learning further information on this issue may access the ANCOM website or the www.portabilitate.ro website. In order to be convinced that they make the best and most informed choice when changing the services provider, the users may access www.veritel.ro, the online application for comparing telecom offers managed by the regulatory Authority, which allows for a comparison of all the public offers of all telephony and Internet providers.