National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology of the Republic of Moldova

As of today, July 1^st 2013, mobile number portability is available for Moldova citizens. „Any user wishing to switch mobile telephone service providers without having to change his/her telephone number, can do this by submitting an number porting application at one of the commercial offices of the provider of his choice. In maximum 5 days, his/her number will start functioning in the new network”, communicated Sergiu Sitnic, Director of the National regulatory Agency for electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI).

Number portability is a service that allows telephone users to retain their telephone number when switching the service provider. Unlike other countries, in Moldova the number porting service will be offered to applicants free of charge. Any mobile number can be ported, regardless of the technology used (GSM, CDMA 2000, 3G, 4G), type of service provided, method of payment (pre-paid or subscription), availability or lack of a written contract signed with the provider.   

The user has the possibility to have his number ported in 5 working days or, at his choice, in a longer term, but not exceeding 30 calendar days. Also, the user has the right to withdraw his number porting application at latest 24 hours before the date and time set for the porting. The user is notified as regards the number porting by the provider by means of Customer Service and other methods of notification (telephone, e-mail and SMS).

In order to notify the callers to ported numbers, the providers will use, free of charge, a distinctive tone, by which the callers will be notified that the given number is a ported one and the tariff for this call will be higher than the one within the same network. The users can refer to the Internet site: www.portare.md, developed by the Administrator of the Centralized Data Base for number portability. This site provides information whether a number has been ported or not. As well, users can refer to the ANRCETI Web site www.anrceti.md, which also contains useful info about number portability.

ANRCETI considers that the launch of number portability will offer the users of telephone services more freedom of choice and will remove a significant barrier in the development of competition on the electronic communications market. Under these conditions, it is expected that the additional competitive pressure created by this service for providers will cause them to make more efforts in order to keep their users/subscribers by means of more convincing fidelity programs, more attractive services and better service provision conditions to attract new users, declared ANRCETI Director. He underlined that the success of number portability will be expressed not as much in the quantity of ported numbers, as in the efforts made by providers to keep their subscribers.  

The implementation of number portability is a provision of the Law on Electronic Communication and corresponds to EU standards. According to the Law, ANRCETI developed the Program for number portability implementation in the R. of Moldova for 2011 – 2013, a document approved in 2011, by the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications. The launch of number portability in fixed networks is scheduled for July 31, 2013.

July 1, 2013