For those who doubted that it was possible for a telecom service user to maintain the same number assigned to his/her phone, regardless of the provider or service area, there’s news for you: such capability, known as number portability, will become available as of the middle of 2009, according to the Brazilian Telecom Authority - Anatel.
Although such portability had been implied since the Telebrás System privatization, there is no specific regulatory benchmark until this date.
Meanwhile, three Bills were proposed for the matter, but failed to be approved by the Legislative Body. Most recently, Anatel formalized the issue, and submitted it for Public Consultation.
According to the regulation proposed, the infrastructure required for implementing the portability will be funded by providers. In turn, users will bear the cost of such capability, and, although Anatel expects "fair and reasonable" rates will be charged, in a single or a number of installments, the interest in prospecting clients may result in providers granting the service at no cost.
About 30 countries offer the portability today. Hong Kong is an example, where rate reduction is directly associated to the portability.
There are, however, not so impressive cases, such as the United Kingdom and The Netherlands, where the cost to the user and the long time consumed to enable it are designated as causes of unsuccessfulness.
Number Portability, regarded as a user’s right condition, may be unlimitedly requested at any time, and may not be turned down by the provider. When a new operator is hired, the portability should be requested thereto and the process performed thereby - preliminarily - within no more than five days. The procedure may only be requested among providers of the same service: fixed-to-fixed, within the same Local Area (city or urban location), and mobile-to-mobile, subject to the limits of the Registration Area (the same long distance code - DDD). The right to portability also comprises non-geographical codes (0300, 0800, etc).
The portability regulation will not influence today’s mobile and fixed telephone service rules. In case of contract termination, the rights and obligations endure both for users and providers, such as the fine charged as a result of the fidelity program, lost bonus, etc. The only particularity will be that the user will retain the same number.
The underlying scope of portability is to promote competition among providers, encouraging rate reduction and improvement of service quality. As for the promotion of competition in the fixed telephone service, there’s a not very cheering estimate. Only 400 cities, where about 60% of the country’s population lives, have more than one fixed telephone operator in service. The remained of the population, distributed by over five thousand cities, have a single operator, and, therefore, will not benefit from the portability.
As the portability activation schedule progresses and controversies are settled, it is hoped that the approved regulation harmonizes Anatel’s proposal with the contributions given by providers and users, implying in that portability becomes a competition-urging instrument.
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