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Cell Phone Number Portability Finally A Reality?
graphicartist82 writes "MSNBC is running an article about the upcoming deadline for cell phone companies to let customers keep their numbers when switching companies. FCC Chairman Michael Powell has already extended the deadline once, but plans to stay with the Nov 24th, 2003 deadline. Companies like Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile have committed to meeting the deadline. I, for one, would love this. I've had the same cell phone number for years now -- it's where everybody knows how to get a hold of me. Other companies are now offering better services in my area where they weren't before. If I can keep my number and get a better service, I'm all for it! (Even if I have to pay a fee like the article suggests)."
I can't see I approve actually, just because of that - but maybe you don't have the possibility of deducing the carrier from the number as it is?
it's in my head
What I would like, is if carriers lived up to what they "say" you get with a plan (as far as coverage, and often battery life for phones, etc). My carrier advertises high coverage, they even have a little map indicating coverage areas, but when it comes down to actual reception, my home city has "dead spots" which are really not accounted for (notably the mall area, outside not inside, which is often somewhere one might want to use the phone for calling rides, etc).
If a carrier doesn't live up to their boasts, we should be able to drop a bad contract - even the big 3yr ones - without a surcharge, and keep our number while moving onto a (hopefully) better provider.
I don't see this happening though... I've never heard of anyone successfully cancelling a contract based on the carrier not meeting their promises.
Strange.
MNP has been available for quite some time now over here.
We sure had our load of problems with it, mostly due the vast number of people changing. The operaters just couldn't keep up.
There is just one problem. Without MNP you allways knew that somebode with a number with the same "network code" as yous was cheap to call. Now you might be calling another network without knowing it (and therefore paying more).
The operators had to set up a system to let a caller know (with a beep) that he is using another network. (This was demendad by consumer organisations...)
But in any case, it seems to work fine now.
Since all mobile operators of more or les the same service, most transfers were purely based on "Price".
There has been a movent from the more expensive one to the cheaper one, but the net result is apparently insignificant compared to the number new customers (not coming in via MNP)
120 chars is not enough!
Irrespective of who you're with and who you are moving to, inthe UK you can always take your phone number with you when you change provider.
In most cases, changing provider is as easy as falling off a log. When I changed my provider last year (to Virgin Mobile) all I had to do was buy the new SIM card, pop it into my existing handset, and call Virgin to set up my account and give them the details of my existing number. They gave me a changeover date, until which time I used my old SIM card (so people could still reach my on the number that I had given out to them). Three days later I was using my new SIM card with my "old" number. It really is that simple.
Number portability is so damn easy and obvious, I can't see any reason not to use it (unless you really want a new number so that your ex-whatever stops hassling you). Conspiracy theorists need to chill on this one too - after all, you can always get a new number if you want to but, like I said, why would you want to put yourself through that much inconvenience? Do you really want to have to call up all your friends, family and colleagues to give them all your new number?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
do we really want to keep the same number of a long time?
I've had my current number since I first bought a mobile phone, back in 1997. For the past 6 years I've changed/upgraded phones 2 times, and used 3 different service providers.
All these companies, and no doubt countless others, keep the number in their records, share it, sell it, you name it.
The amount of spam I get on the mobile is nothing compared to email spam (1:5000?) but it's much more disruptive, because email spam doesn't make my trousers vibrate. The problem is when the price of bulk SMS goes down, a probable thing eventually, enough to make spam a real problem in mobiles.
It would be far more interesting if network operators let you change the number often, rather than keep it for long periods. That, or letting you have 2 or more numbers, so you give 1 to your family, 1 to your business contacts, and another to give away in on/offline forms, etc (you can do this already if you pay for re-direction numbers, but I'd rather have it as a network service).
Although portability is good in terms of (personal) freedom, and may produce a more competitive market, expect higher prices when buying new terminals. Heres why:
1) Mobile phone companies usually offer new phones for less than they pay for the terminals -- no problem, as they know that you wont like to lose your phone number, and therefore they will get a lot of money from you.
2) If you are able to switch easily to a competitor because you wont lose your number, that means that companies will no longer offer cheap terminals.
At least, this is what happened in Spain. A couple of years ago, new terminals were quite cheap. When portability arrived, prices rocketed.
In the UK and most of Europe, as others have said, this has been a standard facility since the EU deemed that the telcos were technically able to do this and were putting limits on the freedom of customers who were able to choose a good deal or their old number, but rarely both.
That said, they do like to get their claws into you other ways. I have a phone with Orange and I'm out of luck if I want to use anyone elses SIM card in it (ignoring the backstreet hackers who will fix it for me) as they lock it to their network. All this means is I need a new handset if I switch networks, no real problem now, but when I next upgrade I'll be getting a convergence device (Sony Ericsson P800 for example) and these aren't something you want to have to buy all over again when you switch networks.
Time to call my MEP.
I work for a company that sells billing and number management software to most of the big cellphone carriers. At this point, the upgrades necessary to support transfering phone numbers from company to company are either in production already or in very late stages of testing.
In most older systems, the carriers had boxes dedicated to keep a DB with every single phone number they really had access to. Changing this system to support transferring phone numbers between companies was neither cheap nor easy.
I'll bet Sprint is shaking in their boots...they have pretty horrible service, with sections of Fairfax (just west of Washington D.C.) not getting any service at all. There's no reason that in a large, suburban area I should get service drops on my cell phone. Verizon phones don't seem to have this problem, they can get service just about anywhere around this area.
Were I allowed to keep my phone number, I would have swithced long ago to Verizon's service plans. Considering now Verizon is offering all the things that only Sprint had awhile ago (free long distance, for one) for the same price, I'd definitely switch.
--trb