ANRCTI prepares Romanian online phone directory

All the phone numbers of both fixed and mobile telephone users in Romania could become available for free on the Internet next year, once the National Communications and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (ANRCTI) appoints a company to set up a directory to provide information on telephone users.
The company will be selected either by a public tender or directly by ANRCTI, explained the Authority.
In order to compile the directory, the selected company will collect the phone numbers of all telephone users in Romania from each individual operator, as well as other standard identification data as stipulated by ANRCTI- such as a person’s first name, last name, address, unique identification number etc. The information will be available to individuals who want to find a phone number either via the Internet, on a web page especially created by the ANRCTI-chosen provider, or by calling a special phone line. The chosen provider will also have permission to print a phone directory.
Telephone customers will reserve the right on whether or not to have their personal identification data included in the directory and also on the data categories included in the directory.
ANRCTI will decide whether to include all the telecom service customers in the directory at first and then allow them to request to be removed from it (the opt-out system) or include them in the directory only upon request (the opt-in system). “Usually in most EU countries, the ‘opt-out’ solution was used for landline subscribers and the ‘opt-in’ was used for the subscribers of mobile telephone services, especially for pre-paid users,” Dan Georgescu, ANRCTI chairman told ZF. To gather the necessary information from the operators, the appointed provider will pay a certain fee. Operators are required to supply their information within a maximum of four months after the receipt of the request and to update the database with user information on a monthly basis.
As revealed in a recital prepared by ANRCTI, the project was launched because “the right of end users in Romania to have access to such directories and information services is not satisfied through commercial mechanisms that are specific to a competitive market.”
The major companies on the telecom market provide services that enable callers to find the numbers of their customers, but, with the exception of Romtelecom, they are available to customers of a specific network who want to find the number of a customer on the same network.
Information is available at a cost to the user on most networks, with the only companies already offering information on their subscribers on the Internet free of charge being Romtelecom and RCS&RDS.
ANRCTI has not provided a specific deadline for when the directory will become operational, but estimates that the directory could be up and running by next year.