To download or print the report (pdf)

This report describes the state of advancement of the universal directory.

Introduction

ARCEP decided to create the universal directory report in autumn 2005, because of the delays it had observed in the implementation of the universal directory and due to the lack of completeness of some of its components.

Review:

• All subscribers to fixed or mobile telephone service have the right to have their telephone number appear at no charge in the universal directory, which is proposed by directory publishers and director service providers.
• On their part, operators must inform all subscribers of their rights and put them in a situation to exercise these rights
• Operators are also required to communicate the data of all subscribers to all directory publishers and directory service providers requesting them. However, subscribers’ data are not shared if the subscriber is opposed to it. In the special case of mobile telephony subscribers, each subscriber is required to give consent before the operator can share his/her subscriber data.

The report presents the following information for all operators of a significant size on the French market:

• number of telephone numbers (estimate) registered in the universal directory list
• percentage of numbers registered in this list, with respect to the total number of phone numbers
• percentage of numbers for which subscribers have refused to appear in the list, with respect to the total number of phone numbers
• availability status of the list for directory publishers and directory service providers

The scope of this report initially included 17 operators, for the period from December 2005 to October 2006. The changes observed during the monthly publications of this report during this period have shown considerable improvement in the provision of the subscriber lists by most of the operators appearing in this report.

In November 2006, the scope of this report was extended to 26 operators and distinguishes between fixed and mobile telephony activities.

In its monitoring that operators respect their universal directory obligations, ARCEP now believes it to be appropriate to extend the scope of the report to a second set of operators of a significant size in terms of the numbers they assign to subscribers. The operators concerned are MVNOs or voice on IP or voice on Internet service providers.

This edition of the monthly universal directory report presents the state of advancement at end December 2006.

Observed results

List communications

Almost all of the 17 operators appearing in the initial report have shared their subscriber lists with at least three publishers. Just one of these operators has still not effectively shared its list with any publisher.

Most of the nine operators recently added to the report since November 2006 have not yet shared any subscriber lists to publishers. While some of them report being in contract negotiations for a list transfer offer, others do not appear to have initiated any such negotiations. ARCEP reminds these operators that in order to meet their obligations, they must share their subscriber or user lists with universal directory publishers and universal directory service providers.

Inclusion rates in lists

The proportion of subscribers included in the lists of mobile telephone operators continued to increase slightly to 2.4 % in December. By comparison, the percentage of numbers included in the fixed telephony subscriber lists of reporting operators is greater than 70% in a very different regulatory context.

APPENDIX Warning The information presented by the universal directory report must be interpreted with care, taking into account the following contextual elements: The report is created based on information provided by players which is not formally verified by ARCEP. Therefore, ARCEP cannot be held responsible for its accuracy. Some operators covered here report being in negotiations for a list transfer offer with universal directory publishers. However, if, based on the information provided by an operator, the subscriber list does not appear to have been effectively created, the availability code will be coloured red. "No effective availability of an operator’s offer to communicate its list" If a report is not received by the end of the current month, the figures from the previous month are used. In order to protect the confidentiality of certain information, the data of each operator is published in intervals. However, the publication format is still fine enough to appreciate each operator’s degree of advancement and its position in the global landscape. Fixed and mobile operators are not subject to the same legal and regulatory constraints as regards registration in the directories; if fixed subscribers do not report their decision on inclusion by a certain deadline, their phone numbers are automatically included in the directories. This is not the case for numbers assigned by mobile operators. The numbers of subscribers having chosen pre-selection are provided by France Telecom, and are therefore included in France Telecom's list. Therefore, operators providing essentially pre-selection are not included in the report. For ported numbers, the new operator is responsible for registering the number in its subscriber list. The report is based on the percentage of phone numbers included in the directory with respect to the total number of telephone numbers assigned to subscribers, which reflects only indirectly the number of an operator’s subscribers included in the directory. For example, only a few of a company’s numbers might be included, and not all the numbers of its employees’ direct lines. Therefore, any kind of comparison between operators can only be made with great caution, since there are many specific cases For example, users who have both a fixed and mobile number, or two fixed numbers for the same partially unbundled fixed line, may want to have only one of these numbers included in the directories.