Number portability is the possibility for the end-user of a voice service to keep the assigned number when changing the provider of public voice service.

Information on whether a certain number has been ported and, if so, with which service provider the number is currently located is available at www.prenesibroj.rs.

Number portability is a legal right of the end-user established more than ten years ago and is regulated by the applicable Law on Electronic Communications ("Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", No. 35/23). Number portability as a legal obligation also exists in all countries of the European Union and the region. Users feel attached to their telephone number and are not willing to change service provider if it means having to change their number, even if they would get better terms with the new service provider. Number portability removes this obstacle and is therefore an important mechanism for encouraging competition and the development of the electronic communications market.

Service providers are obliged to cooperate with each other and refrain from actions aimed at hindering or preventing number portability.

Service providers are required to ensure that the duration of number activation and de-activation within the porting procedure does not exceed one business day.

The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Postal Services (RATEL) governs the area of ​​number portability, prescribes in more detail the terms and manner of number porting, deadlines and the amount of the fee for number porting, including the amount of the fee in case of exceeding the deadlines for number porting, manages a number porting information system and maintains a database of ported numbers.

In addition to the Law on Electronic Communications, this area is also regulated by the provisions of the following by-laws:

Rulebook on number portability for services provided via public communications networks at a fixed location ("Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", No. 82/24), in force as of 1 June 2025

Rulebook on number portability for services provided via public communications networks at a fixed location ("Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", No. 101/22), in force until 31 May 2025

Rulebook on number portability for services provided via public mobile communications networks ("Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", No. 82/24), in force as of 1 June 2025

Rulebook on number portability for services provided via public mobile communications networks ("Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", No. 13/22), in force until 31 May 2025

Number portability in mobile telephony

Since July 1, 2011, the possibility of number porting in mobile networks has been available in the Republic of Serbia. At that time, RATEL established and then continued successful cooperation with mobile network service providers in implementing a complex number portability procedure. By the end of 2024, approximately 1,400,000 numbers had been ported from the mobile network of one service provider to the mobile network of another service provider. In the past period, number portability and the operation of the central database of ported numbers maintained by RATEL have run smoothly. Number portability has been an important benefit for users all these years, resulting in more than 100,000 numbers being ported in mobile networks almost every year.

Number portability in fixed telephony

Number portability in fixed networks, which was enabled in April 2014, represented an upgrade of the existing system for mobile networks with the introduction of new specificities and complexities. By the end of 2024, more than 450,000 geographic number portings from the fixed network of one service provider to the fixed network of another service provider were completed. In conditions when the use of voice services over the fixed network is decreasing, the number of ported numbers is decreasing as well, however the percentage ratio of ported numbers in relation to the total number of users remains significant.

Number porting procedure

In addition to the end-user, the receiving operator (the service provider to whom the end-user wants to switch, or whose services he intends to use in the future) and the donor operator (the service provider whose services the end-user currently uses and wishes to relinquish) participate in the number porting procedure.

The end-user submits a request for number porting to the receiving operator.

The donor operator is obliged to provide the end-user with a statement of accounts along with any outstanding debt, within two business days from the date of submitting the request for number porting. The donor operator is obliged to specifically state the amount payable due to the early termination of of the user agreement.

The request for number porting shall also be considered as a request for the termination of the existing subscriber agreement between the user and the donor operator.

The contractual relationship between the donor operator and the end-user shall be considered terminated on the date of successful completion of the number porting procedure.

The end-user is obliged to provide the receiving operator with information about his/her identity when submitting the number porting request.

The end-user is also obliged to submit a statement committing to paying all obligations owed to the donor operator under the agreement until the moment the number is disconnected from its network.

The donor operator verifies whether the requirements of number portability are met and may reject the request only for reasons defined in the rulebooks governing number portability. Possible reasons for rejecting the request are as follows:

·       the request for number porting is inaccurate or incomplete or was submitted by an unauthorized person;

·       the request was submitted by an unregistered prepaid user;

·       the number is already in the number porting procedure or the previous number porting was performed less than two months ago, except in cases where the end-user did not receive the contracted service of the appropriate quality;

·       the number has been in use with the number provider for less than two months;

·       it has been established that the subscriber has outstanding debts;

·       the number is in a fixed telephony system that does not allow number portability;

·       the porting is requested for a number from a number block or from a user number group within the network of the donor operator.

In practice, it has been demonstrated that discrepancies in the names and addresses of end-users entered in the number portability request and the data held by the donor operator are the most common reason for rejecting a number porting request. The rulebooks stipulate that if the unique master citizen number of a natural person or the company registration number and tax ID of a legal person are correct, the request may only be rejected if the discrepancy in other data gives rise to justified suspicion.

In order to be able to port their number, end-users who do not have a concluded subscriber agreement (prepaid users) must be registered. User registration means the identification of the user in accordance with the service provider's procedure.

In the case of a number block, the porting of individual units and individual numbers is permitted if the end-user previously withdraws from the defined number block with the donor operator.

The procedure of verification of compliance with the conditions and sending the notification cannot last longer than one business day for mobile telephony, or two business days for fixed telephony, counting from the day the donor operator received the number porting request, e.i. from the day the number porting request was submitted with a specified date.

If the conditions for number porting are met, the donor operator notifies the receiving operator and the central database of the acceptance of the number porting request. After accepting the request, the donor operator is obliged to perform the porting within one business day for mobile telephony or within two business days for fixed telephony, except in the case where the number porting request has been submitted with a specified date.

With the introduction of number portability, it is no longer possible to know in which network the number is located based on the dialing code alone (060, 063, 064, ...), therefore in some cases, calls placed to the end-user’s ported number may cost more than expected. For this reason, the end-user can activate an automatic voice message with the following content: "The number you have dialed has been ported to the network X. Please wait while the connection is being established", which is free of charge. In addition, on the RATEL website www.prenesibroj.rs, end-users and all other interested parties can obtain information whether a specific number has been ported to another network.