Information to the public on the destination network of calls to ported numbers

By determination of 27 February 2003, has been approved by the article 3 of Decree-Law nr. 133/2002, of May the 14, a decision on the destination network of calls to ported numbers, following the draft decision adopted on 6 December 2002:

Whereas:

1. The Land Mobile Service operators must, as from 30 June 2003, make available a free of charge on-line announcement on national voice calls between Land Mobile Service network operators, whenever these calls are destined to ported numbers;

2. Relatively to the contents of the announcement mentioned above, the operators should decide on one of the versions (the second version of the two, allows the identification of the operator where the call is originated from):

Version A: “The number that you have dialled belongs to (…)”.

Version B: “(…) informs that the number you have dialled belongs to (…)”.

3. The operators must inhibit the hearing of this announcement on the national calls for free-toll numbers as well as for the remainder of the national calls not included in the nr. 1 above and destined to numbers susceptible to portability (geographic numbers, numbers beginning with 808, 809, 707, etc);

4. Yet, the message announcement must be inhibited on roaming in calls;

5. The inhibitions referred to in nr. 3 and 4 above must be operational as from the date at which the notice is made available;

6. The operators, whenever technically viable, should implement solutions allowing the client originating the call, at his own will and with no charges to have the on-line announcement, mentioned at nr. 1 above, inhibited. In this case, the clients must be duly informed by each operator of the proceedings adopted to activate or deactivate the inhibition to listening the announcements offered by operators;

7. The Land Mobile Service operators and the Fixed Telephone Service providers should, in accordance with ANACOM's determination of 18-04-02, maintain a telephone service providing information on call charges to ported numbers, whenever their tariff plans might imply that a call to a ported number becomes more expensive than before the number’s portation”;

8. The informative services mentioned on the previous nr. should be able to identify the destination call network, whenever this identification is needed to provide accurate information on the tariffs;

9. The informative service available and referred to at nr. 7 above, in no way impairs the Land Mobile Service operators and the Fixed Telephone Service providers to maintain other forms of information regarding tariffs according to applicable legislation;

In the context of this determination and during the follow-up of its execution, it was also considered the following:

I) The provision of free announcement on-line, referred to at nr. 1, shall be articulated with an informative campaign to be carried out by ANACOM in coordination with Land Mobile Service operators, through which will be namely clarified the objective of the announcement. This campaign will also divulge portability, as well as the procedures to be followed by the users, if they wish to be informed on the price of calls to be made to ported numbers. The Land Mobile Service operators and the Fixed Telephone Service providers as well as consumer associations shall be informed about this campaign regarding the on-line announcement to be implemented by the Land Mobile Service;

II) ANACOM will go on collecting and assessing information on portability development and on its consequences aiming at creating a competitive market and safeguarding the interests of consumers. In this context, notwithstanding the price distinctions between voice calls in-net and off-net originated at fixed network (fixed to fixed or fixed to mobile) and originated at mobile network to fixed network (mobile to fixed) being, at present, expressively lower than the ones registered amongst network operators of Land Mobile Service, ANACOM will pay special attention to the above matter, in order to promote a competitive market and to assess the best way to keep the calling users properly informed;