Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações
Notice
(This is not an official translation of the law)
Draft Regulation amending Regulation no. 257/2018 of 8 May
Statement of reasons
Regulation no 58/2005 of 18 August, as amended by Regulation no. 87/2009 of 18 February, Regulation no. 302/2009 of 16 July and Regulation no. 114/2012 of 13 March, establishing the principles and rules governing portability on public communications networks (Regulamento da Portabilidade - Portability Regulation), was recently amended by Regulation 257/2018, published on 8 May.
Pursuant to article 6 of the amending regulation, the amendments made to the portability regime under Regulation no. 257/2018 of 8 May entered into force on 22 May 2018, with the exception of certain provisions whose entry into force was deferred until a later date.
These deferred provisions include those governing the new mechanism to validate electronic portability requests, using the Portability Validation Code (CVP). These provisions must be implemented within 9 months from the date of the regulation's publication (i.e. no later than 9 February 2019).
However, a number of difficulties related to the complexity of implementing the CVP and making it available for use, as under the new Article 12-A of Regulamento da Portabilidade (Portability Regulation), have been reported to ANACOM, especially as regards the need for service providers with portability obligations to make changes in various information systems which interact with each other. In a worst case, these difficulties may impact the right to portability and undermine the confidence of consumer in this new process of validating electronic portability requests.
For these reasons, on 14 November 2018 ANACOM approved commencement of a procedure to amend Regulation 257/2018 of 8 May (procedure announced on 15 November 2018), with a view to changing the date of entry into force of the regime governing the CVP, all under the terms provided for in paragraph 1 of article 98 of Código do Procedimento Administrativo (Administrative Proceeding Code).
The period granted for this purpose (five working days following publication of the notice on ANACOM's institutional website) concluded with a contribution received from APRITEL - Associação dos Operadores de Comunicações Eletrónicas (Association of Electronic Communications Operators), on behalf of its members. This contribution was analysed and given due consideration in the preparation of this draft amendment to Regulation no. 257/2018 of 8 May.
APRITEL proposed extending the period provided for the entry into force of the provisions set out in point b), paragraph 1 of article 6 for a period of not less than 3 months. However, in accordance with the rules governing time limits, as laid down in Código do Procedimento Administrativo (Administrative Proceeding Code), the regime applicable to the CVP would, in the case of a 3-month period, enter into force on a working day (Thursday). As indicated by APRITEL, this was seen as a hinderance to implementation in case of problems with information systems.
Therefore, and in order to mitigate the impact of any operational difficulties associated with the new validation mechanism (CVP), ANACOM considered it more appropriate that it take effect on a Saturday - 11 May 2019 - given the reduced level of activity associated with portability processes at the weekend. This will also allow providers to perform validations in progress before switching to the new mechanism.
As such, in order to ensure the integrity of the portability process as a whole and to minimise the impacts of transition for different providers, as well as for users, it is considered fitting to grant an extension to the time limit requested on the above terms.
In this context and pursuant to powers provided for in points a) and h) of paragraph 1 of article 8 of ANACOM's Statutes (approved by Decree-Law no. 39/2015 of 16 March), in pursuit of the regulatory objectives set out in points a) and c) of paragraph 1 of Article 5 and under the provisions of article 54 and paragraph 1 of article 125, all of Law 5/2004 of 10 February (current wording), as well as under the terms of point a) of paragraph 2 of article 9 and of point b) of paragraph 1 of article 26 both of ANACOM's Statutes, ANACOM has approved, by determination of 30 November 2018, the draft regulation amending Regulation 257/2018 of 8 May.
Pursuant to article 10 of ANACOM's Statutes and articles 98 et seq. of Código do Procedimento Administrativo (Administrative Proceeding Code), this draft regulation is submitted to the appropriate regulatory consultation process, by means of publication in 2nd series of Diário da República (Official Journal) and on ANACOM's institutional website, for a period of 10 working days, as established under paragraph 3 of article 10 of ANACOM's Statutes, given the urgent need for a timely review of the timetable of entry into force of the CVP electronic portability request validation mechanism, as requested by companies with portability obligations.
As such, interested parties may send their contributions by email to regulamento-portabilidade@anacom.ptmailto:regulamento-portabilidade@anacom.pt. Once the regulatory consultation has been concluded, ANACOM will examine the contributions and suggestions advanced by interested parties, and with the approval of the regulation, will produce a report making reference to all responses received and providing an overall assessment that reflects the ANACOM's position thereon and the reasoning for the options taken.
Draft Regulation
Article 1
Amendment to Regulation 257/2018 of 8 May
1 - Article 6 of Regulation 257/2018 of 8 May, shall read as follows:
"Article 6
[...]
1 - ...
a) ...
b) Article 2, paragraph 8 of article 7 and articles 8, 9, 12, 12-A, 13, 14, 17, 18 and 23-A, which take effect on 11 May 2019.
c) ...
2 - Annexes I and II of the Portability Specification, updated and made available under paragraph 3 of article 5 of this Regulation, shall take effect on 11 May 2019."
Article 2
Entry into Force
The amendments made to Regulation no. 257/2018 of 8 May under the present Regulation shall enter into force on the working day following the day of its publication.
30 November 2018. - Chairman of the Board of Directors, João António Cadete de Matos.
