Communiqué de presse

ART informs consumers of the conditions of the upcoming implementation transporter selection for mobile telephones

18 October 2000

Since 1st January 1998, subscribers can select an alternate operator to France Telecom to route their long-distance and international calls, by dialling, the prefix (one or four digits) of the chosen operator at the beginning of the number in place of the 0: this is "call-by-call" selection.

They can also choose an alternate operator for all these calls. In this case, they dial the number in the usual way, dialling the 0: this is called "pre-selection".

Until now, transporter pre-selection, which is available to all subscribers since the beginning of this year, worked only for long-distance and international calls. As of 1st November, it will be extended to fixed calls to mobile numbers which were, in most cases, handled by France Telecom.

On this occasion, ART wishes to clear up any confusion for consumers:

  • When a subscriber has a call-by-call selection contract for its long-distance with an operator other than France Telecom:

- If they wish their fixed-to-mobile traffic to be handled by the same operator, they need to dial the transporter's selection prefix ("E" or "16 XY") before the mobile number dialled, which will begin with "E"6 or 16 XY 06; the operator will have to offer to modify the contract immediately and provide applicable prices

- If they wish to keep France Telecom for their fixed to mobile traffic, they need not do anything, continuing to dial the mobile numbers beginning with 06

  • When subscribers have a pre-selection contract for their long-distance calls with an operator other than France Telecom:

- If they dial mobile numbers beginning with 06, fixed-to-mobile calls will be automatically handled by the operator with which they have a pre-selection contract

- The operator must inform the subscriber of this change, offering to modify the contract and providing applicable prices

- If they wish to keep France Telecom for their fixed-to-mobile traffic, they have to select France Telecom on a call-by-call basis, which means that:

  • corporate subscribers will have to program their PABX to ensure the call-by-call selection is done automatically

  • residential subscribers dial the transporter selection prefix "8" for France Telecom before the mobile number

France Telecom has indicated that it will apply the call-by-call selection prefix "8" as of 18 October 2000, provided it is requested by the subscriber.

  • In the (infrequent) case where subscribers use a specific offer for fixed-to-mobile calls via a short number (3B PQ) or a toll-free non-geographic number (08 00 PQ MC DU), this system will continue to operate in the same way both in terms of technical and pricing conditions. In the future, operators might change their offers to either pre-selection or call-by-call selection.

Linked documents