Number Portability Launched in Romania

Romania's telecoms regulator, ANC (formerly Anrcti) has launched number portability in the country for both mobile and landline services. The ANC President a estimated that, in the first two years of number portability, approximately 20-25% of the mobile telephony numbers in Romania will be ported.

"Whoever wishes to keep his/her telephone number, but, nevertheless, switch telephony providers, can now go to chosen operator and submit a porting request. Within 10 days, his/her number will be operational in the new network", Mr. Liviu Nistoran, the ANC President.

Some of the financing for the central porting database came from the EU through a 2005 funding initiative. Fixed telephone numbers cannot be ported to mobile telephone networks, nor the other way round.

The regulator has been in some turmoil over the past few months after the Prime Minister sacked the former head of the body, Dan Georgescu then dissolved the regulator and reformed a new organisation to avoid legal challenges to the sacking.

Estimates from the Mobile World subscriber tracker report that the country ended the first half of this year with some 24.9 million mobile customers, with Orange and Vodafone dominating the market, holding roughly 40% market shares each - followed by Cosmote and a clutch of smaller operators.

Posted to the site on 23rd October 2008