| | By John Daly in Germany @ Monday, March 23, 2009 4:37 PM
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| | EU Telecoms Commissioner Vivane Reding today said it would be good for the unified market if consumers were able to port their numbers within one single day when switching an operator. EU citizens can port their number in all 27 EU member states, however the time span differs by weeks. People lucky enough to ive in Malta or Ireland have their numbers ported within a day, whereas it takes 38 days to port a mobile phone number in Poland and 15 days in Italy.
'This is an intolerable situation. It distorts competition between operators in Europe's borderless single market and puts citizens in countries with less effective consumer rules at a disadvantage,' said Commissioner Reding in her weekly video message. 'I want all Europeans to be able to switch their phone operator – whether mobile or fixed – within one single day, as it is already the case in Ireland and in Malta.'
The Commission put a rule in place back in 2003 giving consumers the right to port their numbers when switching operators. According to Reding, close to 24 million fixed line and 60.2 million mobile phone numbers have been ported. A rule was proposed by the Commission in November 2007 which would give consumers the right to port their numbers in a single day. The rule is currently being negotiated in parliament. The Commission will also discuss its proposal for a new EU rule to slash charges for SMS and data roaming and hopes to find an agreement with MEPs and the council tomorrow. Consumers will hope so too, as fees for sending SMS from a neighbouring country or even using data services still are too high. X
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