As referred above, the determination of 14 May 2014 established a time limit of one year for the return of one or two blocks of the 16xy(z) resource, used as call centre hotline - 1610(z), 1693(z) and 1699(z) - to which NOS is currently bound in the scope of the merger by acquisition of ex-ZON into NOS.
In that decision, notwithstanding the fact that these numbers were in use by NOS and had a commercial value, this Authority took the view, bearing essentially in mind the impact on clients and also the fact that these numbers were intended for the provision of very different services (e.g. fixed telephone service - mobile telephone service), that at least one1 (or two) call centre hotlines should be discontinued within a one-year period of time, to ensure that the change in numbers is appropriately advertised to the market, thus minimizing the impact on users of the process of recovery by ANACOM of this type of numbers.
However, given the market evolution occurred after 2008 both at the level of offers and at the level of the market, where some mergers took place, the accumulation of two 16xy numbers could cause some confusion among potential users of services already provided. For this reason, ANACOM supports that the possibility of accumulation of two 16xy numbers should be associated to a clear and unequivocal separation between the services provided through each of the numbers, in order to (i) avoid the change of consumer habits, (ii) prevent potential users from being affected in any way, (iii) ensure an efficient use of numbering resources.
In addition, acknowledging that the provision of a set of bundled offers (packages) hinders the referred separation of customer services, this Authority recommends, having weighted some issues such as costs and efficiency of the service which supposedly were already covered by the scope of the launched tender, that NOS explores the possibility of establishing, for the benefit of its own clients, a single point of contact/number for the relation between the operator and such clients, returning to ANACOM not only one but two 16xy numbers of its choice.
Moreover, the use of a single number, of the 16xy(z) format, is compatible with a possible market segmentation (residential market vs business market, retail market vs wholesale market, a single service or a combination thereof); also, in previous decisions, ANACOM took the view that it would be excessive to maintain two sets of call centre hotlines for the same type of offer. For this reason, this Authority believes that, regardless of the return of one or two 16xy numbers, the disclosure of information to consumers should abide by the principle of transparency and marketing practice.
1 Situation which results from the determination issued on 29 December 2008, published at "Transfer to SONAECOM of rights of use for numbershttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=799678", in the scope of which, as a result of the final decision on conditions associated to rights of use for numbers transferred from Optimus Telecomunicações to Novis Telecom, ICP-ANACOM acknowledged that “it was relevant for users to be used to some call centre hotlines, considering that numbers of this type associated to the provision of mobile services (1693) could co-exist with similar numbers for the provision of fixed telephone services”, thus allowing the same company to accumulate two “16xy” numbers, one associated to the provision of the fixed telephone service and another to the mobile telephone service.
