President of UKE imposed a fine of 100 000 PLN on Netia S.A.
01 March 2019
The President of UKE imposed a fine for preventing XL Telekom from exercising the right to port the assigned numbers, as referred to in art. 71 item 1 of the Telecommunications Act. The proceeding was initiated in connection with the application filed by XL Telekom to terminate the contract for the provision of telecommunications services with the porting of 499 assigned numbers.
According to art. 209 item 1 point 16 of the Telecommunications Act, any person who prevents subscribers from using their right to port an assigned number, shall be liable to a financial penalty. According to art. 71 item 1 of the Telecommunications Act, a subscriber being a party to an agreement with the service provider, where a number from the national numbering plan for the public telecommunications network is assigned, may request, when changing service providers, to port the assigned number to an existing network of an operator in a geographic area - for geographic numbers and in the entire country - for non-geographic numbers.
In the course of the proceeding conducted by the President of UKE, it was found that Netia entered into a contract for the provision of telecommunications services for 499 numbers, and XL Telekom used this numbering to provide services at a shopping centre in Łódź in order to ensure the availability of telephone services and the Internet access for customers in the Centre, by concluding with them contracts for the provision of telecommunications services.
XL Telekom applied for the porting of 499 numbers used on the basis of the above-mentioned contract to the network of another operator. Netia refused to port the numbers pointing out the nature of the agreements concluded with XL Telekom, which, in Netia’s opinion, were not subscriber contracts but interconnect agreements with access to numbering. Thus, according to Netia, XL Telekom did not have the right to port the assigned numbers.
As a result of the conducted proceeding, the President of UKE established that Netia concluded with XL Telekom subscriber contracts and not interconnect agreements with access to numbering. Therefore, XL Telekom had the status of a subscriber and was entitled to port the numbers. For this reason, Netia, while refusing to port 499 numbers, violated the Telecommunications Act and was subject to a fine in accordance with art. 209 item 1 point 16.
The decision is not final.
Information on consumer rights in connection with the use of telecommunications services can be found at: https://cik.uke.gov.pl/