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

Similar in the UK

[Space cowboy]

All mobile numbers are obliged to start 07, for the sake of portability and also to let people know they're calling a mobile phone (so it'll be more expensive).

Having said that, I changed my number last time - because the new one was much easier to remember :-)

Simon.

Re:Similar in the UK

[weave]

The difference in the U.S. is number portability extends to landline phones too. So I can move my home phone number to my mobile phone and disconnect forever my landline. This is why the RBOCs (landline providers) are fighting this so hard.

The only reason the US can get away with this is because the owner of the phone pays for both incoming and outgoing calls. It doesn't cost the caller anything extra to call a mobile phone.

Re:Every Company Seeks a monopoly

[blmatthews]

Originally bonsai *were* naturally occuring phenomena, it's only after all the stunted trees growing on rocks in the mountains were found and removed that people started shaping their own bonsai.

I agree with your main points though.