Portability

Number portability is the function that allows subscribers of public telephone services requesting it to keep the same number or numbers, for the same service, regardless of the company that provides it on a given location (the case with geographical numbers) and on the whole of the national territory (remaining numbers). Change is only possible within the same service. I.e., it is possible to change of fixed telephone service provider and keep the same number, it is possible to change of mobile telephone service provider and keep the same number and it is also possible to change of a non-geographical service provider (e.g.: 800 numbers) and keep the same number. But it is not possible, for example, to carry a number from a fixed telephone service provider to a mobile telephone service provider or the other way around.

Portability has been available on fixed networks since 30 June 2001 and on mobile networks since 01 January 2002.

The table of prices that operators (fixed and mobile service) charge to new customers who choose to keep their number can be consulted here.

Table of priceshttp://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1104950 

The use of this function has been growing, with a total 2,318,484 ported numbers by the end of April 2013, of which 1,698,559 are fixed telephone service numbers, 517,513 belong to the mobile telephone service and 2,412¹ are numbers of non-geographical services.

Consult:

Evolution of ported numbershttp://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=335881

With the purpose of answering consumers' legitimate interests in the scope of this function, ANACOM has decided the following:

- Since 30 June 2003, every time mobile network users make a national voice call to a ported number of another mobile network, they hear a free notice informing of the new network of the called number. After 2 September 2005 - i.e., 10 working days after the publication of the Portability Regulationhttp://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=160182 - the content of this notice should be as follows: ''Warning: You are calling a subscriber that now belongs to […]. Please hold''.

Should the callers want their mobile operator to inhibit the hearing of this notice, which should be made by their operator on a free basis and whenever technically feasible, they can ask their operator to inhibit it. According do the mentioned Portability Regulationhttp://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=160182, as from 1 January 2006 all mobile operators have the duty to inhibit this notice whenever asked to by the calling subscriber. Thus, there will no longer be any constraints to the mentioned technical feasibility.

Consult:

Deactivation/ re-activation of the portability notice - Mobile networkshttp://www.anacom.pt/template25.jsp?categoryId=130562 

- Should operators of the fixed telephone service (FTS) and of the mobile telephone service (MTS) have tariff plans that might imply that a call to a ported number is more expensive than before portability, they must maintain an information telephone service regarding the price of voice calls, data calls and short messages to ported numbers (Portability Regulationhttp://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=160182).

According to the data received at ANACOM, the following information services are currently offered by the providers covered by the Portability Regulation (updated at 31 December 2012):

(*) (temporary) access number to information service that was previously provided by PT Prime (on 29.12.2011, PT Prime was merged into PT Comunicações, whereby PT Prime was wound up and their contractual positions wholly transferred to PT Communications, S.A.).

For further information on this this matter, interested parties should contact their telecommunication service providers, on the numbers shown on the table, or contact ANACOM' public attendance service, by telephone to 800206665, in person, by writing or by e-mail info.portabilidade@anacom.pt

See also:

Informative leaflet on Portability: ''My number always follows me''http://www.anacom.pt/template12.jsp?categoryId=74170

 
¹ Includes 286 ported numbers from the 30 numbering range (number associated with the nomadic VoIP service).
² Providers with tariff plans which may imply that a call to a ported number, which no longer belongs to the same network, is more expensive than prior to its portability.