Romania’s telecom sector regulator ANCOM wants to cut the fees charged between telecom operators for number porting.

The porting of a telephone number occurs when the person who has that number switches from one network to another one.

“Given the significant volume of numbers ported in recent years and the fact that these fees were set in 2010, we propose a 44% fee cut for every fixed number ported, from EUR 7.8 to maximum EUR 4.4, and a 66% drop in the fee for each mobile number ported, from EUR 5.6 to maximum EUR 1.9,” said ANCOM president Sorin Grindeanu.

Lowering these costs could stimulate telecom operators to launch more attractive offers to draw new users or keep the existing ones, according to the ANCOM head.

The regulator has calculated the new porting fees based on a benchmark analysis, based on information collected from 25 countries. ANCOM’s proposal will be in public debate until February 22.

Over 4.2 million phone numbers, 3.5 million of which were mobile numbers, were ported in the first nine years since this option was launched. Local operator RCS&RDS won most numbers through porting, namely over 1.3 million, according to ANCOM data.

editor@romania-insider.com