FCC Still Pushing for Number Portability on Nov. 24

JediAeryn writes "eWeek.com is reporting the latest on cell phone "number portability." Looks like the FCC is requiring wireless carriers to allow customers to take their numbers with them beginning Nov. 24th. This is all well and good, provided these companies don't throw out more lawsuits to slow the process. My local Verizon store has been giving me the same date for several weeks, but mentioned that other companies are afraid of losing their current customers. My question to the Slashdot community is this: is that a valid concern? Do you plan to switch carriers, and for what reasons?"

Comments

Re:Can I move it to VoIP?

[sstidman]

No, you won't, unfortunately. The FAQ is found at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/numbport.html . Although the FCC does not specifically talk about VoIP, here is the answer they provide for portability between land lines and mobile lines:

Can I Keep the Same Wireline Telephone Number if I Switch My Local Telephone Service to a Cellular or Personal Communications Service (PCS) Telephone Service Provider or Vice-Versa?

Cellular and other wireless carriers are not required to provide telephone number portability at this time. For this reason, customers cannot retain the same local telephone number if they change their local service from a wireline local telephone company to a wireless carrier, like a cellular or PCS service provider. Likewise, customers cannot switch from a cellular or PCS service provider to a local wireline service provider and keep the same cellular or PCS telephone number.

At this point in time, the FCC does not regulate VoIP. Some people want that to change, but for now they don't. Therefore the FCC will not be mandating number portability between VoIP and any other phone system anytime soon. And there won't be any voluntary effort to setup NP between VoIP and anything else because it costs money to setup the NP system and the phone companies fear that creating an NP system will result in the loss of customers. In my view, only the phone companies that suck should have to worry about that.

Re:Not soon

[fuzzybunny]

You're right, it's crap. GSM is "an" (not "the") answer, at least the way it's implemented in most European countries. You have a GSM phone, there's a standard chip slot (same form factor is mini-smart cards used in USB dongles), and you get a new chip every time you switch providers (and you keep your number without any fees.)

Generally there are fairly hefty withdrawal fees, but you can get a new phone at a hefty discount
when you sign up, and you can normally get a fairly decent phone at a good price every two years or so if you stick with your provider. The phone's yours.

I like it; I've had better quality services here (all over Europe) than anywhere I've used any cell phones back home in California. The pricing's a bit higher, although with all the surcharges US providers have, I don't think it makes too much of a difference. And the cool thing for me is that as long as I'm on my provider's network in Switzerland, all the calls are at the "mobile" rate. Long distance is only when you call to or from other countries (in all of which my phone works).

True, the rates are a bit higher if I call outside my provider's network, but that's a pretty insubstantial difference.

Re:Pepsi Challenge here in the woods

[slykens]

Give me signal strength out here in the woods, and I'll give you my money

Not to diminsh your choice of locations to live but UHF and nearly microwave RF doesn't penetrate woods very well. If you're serious about getting good signal inside your house don't expect the mobile carrier to plop a tower nearby to help you out. Get yourself a cellular repeater (about $700) and install it in your house. You indicate that Cingular is fine outside the house, then a repeater would make it fine inside the house.

I live in the middle of a well populated area and have one bar inside my house and two to three outside. If I place one of these repeaters with a yagi pointed at the local cell I could expect to get 4-5 bars inside my house. Not a bad improvement.

One place that sells cell repeaters is http://www.jdteck.com/product/phprepeater.htm