Bulgaria's three mobile telecoms signed on February 25 2008 the framework agreement that would allow customers leaving one network keep their phone number, Communications Regulation Commission said in a statement.

Each operator made certain concessions to ensure that the service is available to clients as soon as possible, the regulator said, without giving a detailed timeline as to when it would become available.

All three cellphone operators would have two weeks in which to implement portability rules and make them public. Telecom executives, who took part in the talks, said the service could become available at end-March or early-April, as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

The operators agreed that portability was easy to achieve from a technological point of view, but feared that administrative red tape could discourage customers from using the service.

Bulgaria had to implement wireless number portability between networks as soon as it joined the EU on January 1, but just ten days later the country's biggest cellphone operator, Austria Telekom-owned M-Tel, refused to join the agreement already signed by its two competitors, Cosmote's Globul and dominant fixed-line operator BTC's mobile arm Vivatel.

Despite the telecoms regulator intervening in August to speed up proceedings, negotiations showed limited progress, giving the European Commission reason to start infringement procedures against Bulgaria over its telecoms regulator lacking independence and effectiveness in November.