PORTING TO PREPAID CARD - WHEN IS IT POSSIBLE AND WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE

The procedure for porting phone numbers from one mobile network to another is becoming increasingly fashionable in Romania, especially in the PrePay area where there are no contracts with operators where customers are obliged to remain hooked to a mobile network for 12 or 24 months. The porting procedure is also available to those who have subscriptions, but the number can be switched to another network only after the active subscription is terminated, either on time or by paying the penalties that Romanian mobile operators have been accustoming their customers to for the last 20 years.

The main reasons why Orange prepay, Vodafone or Telekom customers are switching:

1. The customer changes residence and there is no signal on the network at the new location. I have personally experienced this case and I can honestly say that the operator managed to solve the problem in no less than ... ATTENTION ... 2 YEARS since my complaint. The new area I moved to was an apartment between many other blocks and obviously, like all GSM operators in Romania, they don't care about 5-10 affected customers in that area. 

2. Frustrations from working on a subscription basis with GSM operators. Here we are talking about several issues, starting with the 45 minutes you have to wait on the phone when you call the call centre with a problem, and ending with the famous inflated bills that customers don't understand and for which they have to make huge efforts to clear with the GSM operator. So a lot of time wasted with people who seem to become mortal enemies the moment you ask them to explain something or other, just to clear up a particular case. 

3. The much better offers on the PrePay card. PrePay cards have much better deals these days, and that's mainly because they are much cheaper than a subscription. For example, often the benefits you get with a €7 subscription are found with a €5 or €6 reloadable card. After all, why pay more money for the same services? Just because the subscription renews your minutes on its own and you don't need to buy an Orange, Vodafone or Telekom top-up yourself on a portal like incarca.ro? 

Carry-over procedure - steps to follow and documents needed 

The porting procedure is quite simple, in principle you submit a porting request to your new service provider. You can port both the phone numbers on the card and those on the subscription. Obviously, if a number linked to a SIM card is ported on a subscription basis, porting does NOT terminate the customer's contractual obligations. 

The customer must close the old subscription before the porting process can begin. Obviously, if the subscriber does not wish to pay for the subscription in advance, porting can be done when the subscription has come to an end. Some telecom providers may put unfair clauses in contracts to prevent prepayment of the subscription.

The porting process takes a maximum of 3 working days and those who wish can choose a fixed date for porting their phone number, but no later than 25 working days after the request is submitted. It is important to note that on the day of porting, the phone number will be inactive for about 3 hours. 

As you can see, the porting process is not difficult to understand or technically difficult to carry out, which is why more and more GSM customers are using this process to change their GSM service provider, especially as it costs absolutely no money. The porting process is a free service offered by the new GSM service provider chosen by the customer.