Hong Kong's Lessons on Number Portability

Dr.Hair writes "Dan Gillmor once again hits the nail on the head with his comparison of Hong Kong's competitive mobile phone market to the United States. Experiences of incumbent carriers trying to thwart competition and stifle the free market in Hong Kong should be remembered as the FCC nudges US carriers to carry out number portability. In the end competition should provide better customer service, better coverage, and better pricing in the US, all of which will eat in to carrier profits. But it also might bring the US out of the tech backwaters, where customer lock-in is the marketing strategy and "innovation" is the spin of the day."

Comments

My experience from Sweden

[Anonymous Coward]

We have had number portability for some time here in Sweden too. I've also changed cell phone providers a couple of times but at least to me it hasn't been the great competitive thing I hoped it to be. The phone companies just have differentiated more heavily their prices, much like insurance companies. So one is cheaper to connect a call with, another is cheaper to SMS with, yet another is cheaper for something else. To really compare prices you need to know exactly what services you use a month, exactly what time you use them AND to which numbers. This is a very hard job with an individual result, so in the end not many people compare prices at all.

Not the only problem

[mauriceh]

At some point I hope they legislate to prevent the mobile carriers from crippling the phones they sell.
When GSM first got going in N.America I bought a Motorola triband GSM phone ( 900,1800,1900 frequencies) from a Circuit City in Minnesota.
It was sold with a VoiceStream activation package.
Of course, when I took it home to Canada I found it was "SIMM locked" to only work with VoiceStream!
After some longish and not amusing phone conversations with VoiceStream I managed to get it unlocked by reminding them that they do not have service here in Canada.
Then I took it with me this summer to Malaysia and Singapore. That is when I found it was also crippled. The only frequency it would work on was the N.American 1900 band.
When I got back I contacted VoiceStream and Motorola to ask what it would take to restore the phone to allow it so work with the frequencies it was advertised as being capable of.
The response was that as VoiceStream ordered these with only 1900 capability the rest was "turned off" in the ROM version shipped to VoiceStream.
"Can they "repair" it?"
"No."
I will pay ( even though I should not have to)
"No"
Can I return it?
"No"

Total rip-off..

Re:Not the only problem

[Nogami_Saeko]

I had a fun one with Nokia:

I had purchased an unlocked 8290 (brand new) over the net. Great little phone, I really liked it, but the problem was that some brain-surgeon at Nokia had decided that to "assist" operators, the phone would auto-lock itself to the first SIM that was inserted into it.

Never mind that when you buy the phone it was unlocked and would accept any carrier's SIM, but afterwards it locked and you were stuck.

Needless to say, I was mad. Phoned Nokia, who said "We can't generate an unlock code for the phone, call your provider". Called the provider "We don't carry that model, so we can't generate a code.". Argh. Of course it was especially annoying that obviously Nokia COULD help me, but they chose not to. Soured me on Nokia phones something fierce.

In the end, buying a $10 cable and using a free utility off the 'net unlocked the phone in about 2 seconds. Still, it was a problem that never should've happened.

That said, I'm on a Sony Ericsson P800 now and I love it - triband, totally unlocked, all of the goodies. I'm skipping the P900 for now (as it's just an incremental upgrade), but will probably pick up the next phone/PDA offering from SE (hopefully some-time in the summer/fall of next year).

Danish experiences

[infolib]

In Denmark we've had number portability for several years. My current cell number has been through 3 different providers. IMO it's been a huge benefit to competition. For instance, I recently switched provider during a price battle that cut my phone bill in half. (My old one followed through most of the way, but they'd never have done it without number portability) They are obliged to extend number portability to work between cell and fixed line phones this april which I'm not so sure is a good idea - I like to know where I' calling because of pricing.

Best current rates in Denmark are about 10c/min, SMS's are 3-4c apiece with no subscription. Some expect the price to fall even lower within the next year. The government agency on IT and Communication runs a helpful price guide to internet and phone providers. Of course all the providers interoperate, so you can just switch sim cards to switch provider and you can call and SMS anyone.

Several providers offer subsidized phones that can be very cheap, but they're not allowed to simlock it to their network for longer than 6 months. It's not illegal to have the simlock prematurely unlocked and it is offered publicly for 15-20 Euro. (You might get better rates elsewhere). Your contract will however be enforceable, so you'll pay subscription fees. I used this possibility recently to use my phone with a german provider during my stay there. (It's illegal in Germany though - I sent my phone from Germany to Denmark to have it unlocked - go call the police)