Call charges to ported numbers

Upon deliberation of December 21, 2001, a draft decision was approved on the nature of user information to be provided on call charges to ported numbers. This draft decision specifies the implementation of a communications campaign during the month of January, 2002 encompassing the following aspects:

1. Provision of a free on-line announcement during a first stage of two months, for voice calls, by the selected provider/operator (Fixed Telephone Service provider offering direct and/or indirect access or Land Mobile Service operator), whenever there exists the possibility of the price of a call to a ported number being higher than the price paid before porting the number. The user will be informed via this announcement that the number has been ported as well as of the means of obtaining information on the price of calls to the same ported number.

2 . The message should be balanced and be of the following format: "The number you have dialled has been transferred to another operator's network, and is now subject to this network's tariffs. Information on the respective tariffs is available via the telephone number XXXXXXXXX" .

3. An information service shall be implemented for call charges to ported numbers, whereby information on the price of calls to the number dialled will be provided via telephone. The selected operator/provider may use its customer support service for this purpose. Calls to receive such informationwill, preferably, be free of charge and otherwise its price should not be higher than the price of a local call (for calls originated in the fixed network to which belong the dialled information services) or higher than the price of a call to the tariff information service already offered by the operator (for calls originated in the mobile network to which belong the dialled information services). Access to such information from any fixed or mobile telephone shall be guaranteed.

4. Once this first stage has finished, information should continue to be provided via a customer support service.

5. Despite the possibility of implementation of other marketing/communication campaigns that the operators/providers plan to launch on their own initiative, they shall send a circular letter together with each customer's bill, informing customers on aspects related to a possible change in call charges to ported numbers and the means of obtaining clarifications on this matter. Following this first circular letter, the bill sent to each customer shall, in the future, indicate the number to be dialled to obtain information on portability, in particular the respective network for each number that the customer wishes to dial and the corresponding tariff. The bill should also indicate the cost of calls to this information service.

6. In the bill sent to each customer, detailed information shall be provided on the respective network of the various numbers to which the customer made calls.

Alongside the aforementioned measures, ANACOM will promote an information campaign on portability in fixed and mobile networks, via the means it will consider to be appropriate.

Interested parties were notified of this draft decision in order to make a written statement within a maximum of 10 days, under the terms of Article 101 (1), of the Administrative Procedure Code.