More than 1.7 million Romanians ported their numbers since the service became available

More than 1.7 million phone numbers have so far been ported in Romanian fixed and mobile networks, from October 2008 until the end of 2014.

Most numbers were ported last year and 74 percent of them were mobile telephony numbers, according to data from the regulatory watchdog ANCOM.

“In 2014, 564,648 numbers were ported, which represents a third of the total of 1,772,073 ported since number portability was launched and until the end of 2014. Of the total of 564,648 numbers ported in 2014, 479,938 were mobile phone numbers and 84,710 were fixed numbers. Since the launch of portability, 1,304,091 mobile telephony users and 467,982 fixed telephony users have benefited from this service,” according to a press release from ANCOM.

The numbers that were ported doubled last year compared to 2013, reaching 47,054 on average per month, from 22,844 registered a year ago.
During the six years of portability, in Romania approximately 15,020 numbers were ported on average per month in 2009, 18,435 in 2010, 21,688 in 2011, 21,324 in 2012 and 22,844 in 2013.

The users who are most interested in keeping their phone number are postpaid users, who represent approximately 67 percent of the total, while 33 percent of those who chose to change their service provider use prepay cards.

Vodafone continues to be the operator that receives in its network the most ported numbers, totaling 398,148, followed by Orange with 369,031 numbers, Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (formerly Cosmote Romania) with 318,233 numbers, RCS & RDS with 213,663 numbers and Telekom Romania Communications (formerly Romtelecom) with 4,284 numbers.

In the fixed telephony segment, most numbers were ported towards RCS & RDS – 130,936, UPC Romania – 111,375, Orange – 100,909, Vodafone – 81,162 and Telekom Romania Communications – 20,385.