On 7th December 1999, the Italian Communications Agency issued a decision on number portability among operators (service provider portability), while reserving to a later date the issuing of guidelines for both local portability and service portability.

The decision provides for the application on the technical solution called "onward routing" for number portability for geographical services. By 29th December 2000 the authority shall provide for a different solution, which could be based on the intelligent network system. For non-geographical services the technical solution chosen by the authority is referred to as "always query". The decision also provides for the allocation of costs borne by both the "donor operator" and the "recipient operator", as well as for the protection of personal data of the clients.

The decision can be found on the Italian Communications Authority web site at: http://www.agcom.it/provv/d_4CIR99.htm

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