Portugal Ends Porting Fees, Guarantees 24-Hour Switch and Payouts

Finding a cheaper phone plan in Portugal has just become far simpler: starting this Tuesday, telecom companies must complete number transfers without charging a cent and, if they miss the agreed-upon deadline, they now owe you money. After years of complaints about opaque fees and unpredictable wait times, the rules have finally shifted in the consumer’s favour.

Why it matters for Portugal

For the first time, free number porting is enshrined in Portuguese law rather than left to marketing slogans. The change springs from ANACOM Regulation 38/2025, which abolishes every direct fee that could be imposed on customers who keep their phone number while moving to a new provider. By removing this financial hurdle, the regulator expects a surge in consumer mobility that will test the resilience of the country’s three-way mobile oligopoly. Market competition, ANACOM argues, only works if people can switch easily; that principle now has teeth thanks to a strict one-day activation rule and an automatic €10 compensation if technicians miss a scheduled visit. Even the hard-to-see costs between carriers have been addressed: a wholesale cap of €1 per transfer prevents back-office billing games. Taken together, the measure aligns Lisbon with the European Electronic Communications Code, bringing Portugal’s framework in line with best practice across the continent.

What changes today

The most obvious shift is that portability fees disappear from every invoice, regardless of whether the number is mobile, fixed, VoIP or non-geographic. From now on, the receiving operator must complete both the transfer and the activation on the date the client chooses or, at worst, by the next working day. If a physical intervention on the network is needed—say, a new fibre line—the countdown restarts the morning after the last cable is installed. Any delay triggers €3 per day in penalties, and service outages caused by sloppy execution cost the guilty firm €23 for every 24 hours, up to a hefty ceiling of €5,750 per request. Customers who close an account still retain the right to port the number for three months, unless they explicitly waive it when terminating the contract. Pre-paid users gain another small win: leftover credit must be returned within ten business days, with only a token €1 handling fee allowed.

Impact on consumers

For Portuguese households tightening their budgets, the removal of the portability tax could represent the difference between sticking to an overpriced bundle and negotiating a better deal. ANACOM believes that clearer rules will embolden people to play operators against one another, much as they already do with energy suppliers. The watchdog expects a noticeable bump in switching during the Christmas-sales window, when families shop for new smartphones. Because the entire process must now fit inside a 24-hour legal window, weekend disruptions should also drop. Critics had feared the new regime would produce hidden surcharges elsewhere, yet early indications suggest tariffs will remain flat: MEO, NOS and Vodafone quietly updated their websites weeks ago to trumpet "portabilidade gratuita" without changing headline prices. Analysts at Porto Business School predict the average household could shave €6 to €10 a month off its bill by renegotiating or moving, savings that add up quickly amid stubborn inflation.

How telecom operators are adapting

Publicly, the three market leaders insist that nothing in the regulation took them by surprise. MEO says its systems were already prepared for zero-cost transfers and a one-day deadline. NOS highlights an internal dashboard that tracks every porting request in real time to avoid fines. Vodafone Portugal claims to have cut the average completion time to six hours in September, well below the legal limit. The fourth player, NOWO, has released no detailed statement but is bound by the same obligations. Behind the scenes, managers grumble about lost ancillary revenue and the effort required to synchronise databases in near-real-time. Yet most have quietly welcomed the wholesale price cap, arguing that it removes a perennial source of inter-operator disputes. The bigger strategic adjustment may lie in retention tactics: expect fatter welcome bonuses, device subsidies and multi-service bundles as carriers compete on value instead of inertia.

European perspective and future outlook

By eliminating direct charges, Portugal joins France, Spain, Germany and Scandinavia in treating number portability as a fundamental right rather than a paid add-on. Where Lisbon leaps ahead is in the automatic monetary redress mechanism, an approach still patchy elsewhere on the continent. Brussels has long urged member states to adopt tougher enforcement, and the Commission will likely cite Portugal as a model when it reviews the Electronic Communications Code next spring. Domestically, the first hard data on the rule’s impact will surface in January 2026, when operators file annual reports. Early hints are promising: during the second quarter of 2025 alone, customers initiated more than 200,000 port-out requests, roughly double the pace seen two years earlier. Should that trajectory hold, analysts expect downward pressure on average revenue per user, but also a healthier, more innovative market in the medium term.

Practical advice for switching

Consumers eager to exploit the new rules should verify that their current number is active, settle any overdue balances and keep personal identification handy when signing up with a new carrier. The receiving operator handles all bureaucracy, but the process moves fastest if you provide a recent bill showing the number to be ported. Remember that asking to port a single mobile line does not automatically cancel TV or broadband services bundled under the same account; for that, a separate cancellation request is still required. Finally, keep your phone switched on during the appointed window: you will receive an SMS confirming that the network hand-over is imminent, after which the old SIM stops working.

The road ahead

The success of ANACOM’s gamble will ultimately be measured by how many Portuguese feel confident enough to shop around. If the promised flood of transfers materialises, carriers may double down on customer experience, rural coverage and 5G roll-outs to distinguish themselves. Should the market instead prove sluggish, regulators could push further, perhaps mandating clearer contract break fees or introducing standardized one-page summaries of every tariff. For now, the message is unambiguous: your phone number no longer chains you to a provider, and if that provider slips up on the paperwork, it will pay—not you.