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

A delegation of the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI - www.anrceti.md) headed by the Director, Sergiu Sitnic, is taking part, on June 9 - 10, in a regional workshop: „Implementation of Number Portability beyond EU Borders”, taking place in Barcelona, Spain. The workshop is organized by the European Commission in co-operation with the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Spain by means of TAIEX (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange instrument managed by the Directorate-General Enlargement of the European Commission - http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/taiex).

The purpose of the seminar is to support the Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities in developing their regulatory framework and operational capacities regarding number portability to be in line with the international standards and EU best practices.

The Seminar agenda includes multiple aspects connected with the harmonization of national regulatory framework with the EU norms and standards, peculiarities of the process of number portability in fixed and mobile networks, technical, economic and regulatory aspects of the process and presentation of the best practices of telephone number portability implementation in EU member states and other countries neighboring the EU. These will be presented by officials of regulatory authorities from Spain, Austria, Bulgaria, Georgia, Italy, Israel and Sweden.

Number portability is a service that allows users to retain their telephone numbers when switching to another service provider. In Europe, this service was launched for the first time in 1999, in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, after which, since 2003, keeping the subscriber's phone number became a point of law for all EU countries. Currently, this service can be accessed in all 27 countries of the European community.

The Republic of Moldova intends to implement mobile number portability in 2012 and fixed number portability - in 2013. ANRCETI has already drafted the Program for Number Portability Implementation in Moldova for 2011 - 2013, to be approved by the sector Ministry. According to the Program, in 2011 ANRCETI will complete the development and approval of the due regulatory framework for number portability and will hold a contest to select the company responsible for creation and management of the centralized database for ported numbers.

June 9, 2011