ANACOM has approved a Regulation that establishes the conditions applicable to the sub-assignment of numbers from the National Numbering Plan, so that numbers allocated by ANACOM to companies that offer electronic communications networks and services can be sub-assigned to other companies. As such, when offering electronic communications services, the recipient companies will be able to use these numbers by assigning them to the end-users of their own retail offers. For this purpose, the two companies must conclude a contract, safe-guarding the conditions of use applicable to the numbering and guaranteeing all the rights of end-users and subscribers, including the right to number portability.
This measure is intended to increase competition in the provision of electronic communications services, reduce market barriers to entry, and increase consumer choice. ANACOM has been aware of the intention of several companies to provide offers of electronic communications services involving the sub-assignment of numbers. These companies aim to offer services supported, by agreement, over wholesale networks and services offered by other companies and using the numbers with rights of use held by these companies.
In preparing this Regulation, regulatory policy options were taken into account which, whenever possible and appropriate, were based on the objective of creating new opportunities for companies that will benefit from the new rules, without this resulting in the imposition of an obligation on companies that hold numbers. These companies retain the freedom to provide or not provide offers of electronic communications networks and services which include the sub-assignment of numbers. Provision must remain governed by the general authorisation regime.
The Regulation was approved on 6 December 2021 and enters into force on the day following its publication in Diário da República (Official Journal).
Consult:
- Approval of the Regulation on the subassignment of E.164 numbers of the National Numbering Plan https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1714069
- Consultation on the draft regulation concerning the subassignment of the National Numbering Plan E.164 numbers https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1685381
See also:
- Regulamento n.º 1028/2021, publicado a 29 de dezembro https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1713169
