More than 37,000 telephone numbers have been ported since the service was launched on July 1, 2013. Over 34,000 of them are mobile phone numbers, while over 3,000 are fixed phone numbers, IPN reports, quoting the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology.
Ala Baidauz, division head at the Agency and coordinator of the mentioned project, told a news conference that all the costs related to the implementation of number portability were incurred by the telecoms carriers. Of the three mobile phone carriers, SA “Moldcell” received 21,900 numbers to its networks, SA “Orange Moldova” – over 6,500, while SA “Moldtelecom” (Unite) – approximately 5,700. In the case of landline telephony, most of the numbers were ported to the networks of “Starnet” SRL – over 1,800. SA “Orange Moldova” ported 1,100 numbers, while SA “Moldtelecom” - 126.
According to Ala Baidauz, the most important element in number portability is not the number of ported numbers, but the level of phone users’ freedom to choose and the power to negotiate with the providers, which makes the latter to make additional effort to keep the users and to attract new ones by more attractive offers at more accessible prices. This factor maximizes the benefits of all the phone users. The Agency will examine the technical and administrative possibilities for reducing the longest porting period, which is now five workdays.
Number portability is a service enabling phone users to retain their telephone numbers when changing from one network operator to another. By launching this service, Moldova aligned itself to the over 70 states that have used number portability for many years, including the 28 EU member states.
