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

The National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI – www.anrceti.md) is announcing public hearings on draft (doc. in state language) Administrative Board Decision for the approval of the regulations on Number Portability. The public hearings are scheduled for September 27, 14.00, ANRCETI office (134, Stefan cel Mare bd.) 5th floor, Conference Room. Providers of mobile and fixed telephone networks and services, officials from state entities, consumer protection associations, other stakeholders are invited to attend.

The draft document was available on ANRCETI Web page, for public consultations, in the timeframe August 18 - September 9, 2011. The comments and recommendations submitted to the Agency in this respect were included in the Review of Recommendations (doc. in state language), available on the web site.

The discussions during the public hearings will be focused on the objections and recommendations from stakeholders. The Agency representatives will present the regulator’s viewpoint as to the recommendations which are not accepted to be included in the draft document.

The draft Regulations on Number Portability was developed by the Agency pursuant to the Law on Electronic Communications and is targeted at ensuring the end users right to select a providers of public telephone services without having to change the telephone number. The Regulations is required by the Program of Number Portability Implementation in the Republic of Moldova for 2011 – 2013, a document developed by ANRCETI and approved by order of the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications of 30.06.2011.

The draft document sets out the general principles and main elements of technical and commercial conditions for the implementation of number portability, porting rules and call routing, the obligations of providers, the status of the centralized database, the procedure of database administrator selection.

According to the draft document, providers of public telephone service licensed to use numbering resources are required to provide number portability regardless of technology used to provide services (PSTN, IP, 2G, 3G, CDMA etc.), the type of these services (voice, fax, data, etc.), the method of payment (prepaid or postpaid) and whether or not the subscriber has a contract signed with the provider.

Stakeholders willing to contribute with additional commentaries and suggestions on the draft document are invited to submit them before Monday, September 2011, to e-mails: tanase@anrceti.md, cristina@anrceti.md. Telephone number 251-314.

September 16, 2011