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What Has Number Portability Done For You?
Coldeagle writes "Number portability has been around for a few days now, I was wondering; have any of you fellow Slashdot readers switched carriers? How was your experience, and have you seen any price warring since it went into place?" Or is number portability so far more hype than happenin'?
Of course it doesn't do anything for me. I am locked into a two-year agreement. I can't change carriers, look into other carriers, or even think about other carriers without first being charged $170.00.
.02,
Number portability... The commercials seem to point at the fact that you can now have your home phone number moved to a cell phone. While I do use my cell phone more than my land line I must say that having an actual phone plugged into the wall not really requiring any batteries, chargers, or antennas is nice.
My cell phone doesn't work all that well in my apartment, it rarely gets a call through on the first four or five times on the weekend, and it drops calls like mad when a plane flies overhead.
Honestly, it's just a gimmick. Something that was mandated for no real reason. It looks like something good but it just isn't what the advertisements and media claim. I liken it to the hype over the gold dollar. They went through all this trouble to design it, market it, and make sure coke machines took it and no one really cared.
As far as price-warring. The only service that I see with reasonable services and prices is T-mobile. They look fantastic until you pull up their coverage area... Here in the Twin Cities Metro area they have great coverage... Problem is I routinely travel outside of the metro area into western and southern MN along with western WI. No coverage there. Sad...
Until my cell service is mandated not to drop calls, not to require as much recharging, and not to have locked in contracts of 2 years, it won't do me any good.
Just my worthless
...and it seems like the process is relatively painless.
One tip for those who are thinking of trying to port their number. Do *not* do the process online. I ordered my new phone that way and the number ported two days before my new phone arrived. As soon as your number ports, your old phone stops working for anything besides 911 calls. Needless to say, I was without a cell phone for two days while I waited for my new phone to arrive.
Other than that, everything went pretty smoothly.
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
With my current carrier, I called them and told them I was thinking about switching and they chopped $15 off my bill if I would stay.
It can't hurt to ask!
..is that Sprint is charging me $2.20/month for it.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
Have you noticed how every carrier has a commercial now, saying that if you switch to them, you can keep your old number? As if they came up with this and are the only carrier with which you can do that...
A modern day witchhunt.
...and I've made use of it taking my mobile number with me when switching GSM providers and also when switching from POTS to VoIP/cable.
(oh, and, yes, I'm talking about Europe here 8=)
Maybe you can move numbers around.
However, for most of us who don't change our phones with the changing of the seasons, it just means it costs us more!
It has cost me 50 cents a month for several years. All the time that the phone companies have been collecting this fee to cover the costs of providing number portability they fought tooth-and-nail against it. Yeah, they're real happy to collect a fee for a service, but they're not exactly thrilled about providing said service.
-- Will program for bandwidth
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It'd be cool to be able to transfer my home number to my cell and carry it with me wherever, not to mention cutting out the cost of my phone line, but I'm concerned that the system is not quite working properly yet. I think I'll wait until I hear more success stories.
The other issue that I am wondering about is telemarketing. It's illegal for telemarketers to call your cell phone, but if I take my land line number and give it to my cell phone, how will the telemarketers know not to call it? Did the FCC ever say anything about this?
-R
The fcc has plenty of info:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/numbport.ht ml
Background: What is Telephone Number Portability
Telephone number portability is a service that provides residential and business telephone customers with the ability to retain, at the same location, their existing local telephone numbers when switching from one local telephone service provider to another.
In 1996 Congress reexamined and changed the Telecommunications Act to promote competition and reduce regulation in all telecommunications markets. Before that time, a major barrier to competition was the inability of customers to switch from one telephone company to another while retaining the same telephone number. Congress directed local telephone companies to offer "telephone number portability."
In order to provide the kind of telephone number portability envisioned by Congress, telephone companies had to invest in upgrades to their networks. In 1998 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) evaluated the cost involved in local number portability and determined that existing local telephone companies were allowed, but not required, to recover the costs of implementing and providing telephone number portability through two kinds of charges: (1) charges paid by other telephone companies that use a telephone company's number portability facilities to process their own calls; and (2) a small, fixed monthly charge assessed on telephone customers or "end users."
What is the Long-Term Telephone Number Portability End-Use Charge?
The long-term number portability end-user charge is a fixed, monthly charge through which local telephone companies may recover certain costs of providing long-term number portability service. Recoverable costs include those for creating new facilities, physically upgrading or improving the existing public switched telephone network, and performing the ongoing functions associated with providing long-term number portability. FCC rules state that incumbent local telephone companies may, but are not required to, recover certain costs of providing number portability by charging their customer a monthly fee.
Am I Required to Pay the Long-Term Portability Charge if I Am a Lifeline Assistance Program Customer?
Carriers can not impose the monthly long-term number portability charge on customers of the Lifeline Assistance Program.
Does Long-Term Telephone Number Portability Mean That I Can Keep the Same Telephone Number if I Move Across Town or to Another State?
The type of telephone number portability that local telephone companies must provide is called "service provider portability." Service provider portability allows a customer to keep his telephone number when changing local telephone companies. It does not allow customers to take their telephone numbers with them when they move.
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.
Will All Telephone Customers Be Charged for Telephone Number Portability?
Local telephone companies can only charge customers in areas where local telephone number portability is available to all consumers. Telephone number portability may not be available in all service areas.
Does the FCC Require Local Telephone Companies to Bill Consumers for Long-term Telephone Number Portability?
The FCC allows, but does not require, local telephone c
I mean, isn't getting a new number always a great opportunity of getting rid of those callers you never want to speak with?
At least that's how I see it.
I work for a certain wireless company with a particularly emphasized logo.
:)
We are pushing off the go-live date of at least one major project until early next year because customer service has been getting a LOT of WLNP calls (WLNP = wireless local number portability), way more than expected, and don't want any releases that will further increase call volume. So I don't know if slashdotters are porting, but a lot of people are. I just hope they are porting TO us and not FROM us
Heck, my own mother, who is as non-tech-saavy as they come, is considering porting her home phone number to a wireless phone and just getting rid of the landline. This law is going to shake up the industry. You may even see one or two wireless carriers going under as a result. They've been predicting for years that the 5 major carriers would eventually boil down to 3. This may be the catalyst to make that happen.
- Vincit qui patitur.
I'm a person, not a revenue source!
Stream, you are countless numbers of revenue streams....think you're not. Think it at the gas station on your way to work, think in line at the grocer. Think it at Tax time...LOL 'citizen'...nope not today, citizen = revenue stream.
I am with Sprint. Before last month or so I planned to switch to ATT; the total cost and cost per minute would have been less. But then Sprint brought out the big guns and allowed nights to start at 7pm. They officially say that you have to upgrade (i.e. pay more per month) and sign a two year contract to get the new nights time if you are an existing customer. I said I wouldn't accept that and I wanted the new time schedules or they would receive a number portability request from ATT *today*. Since I've been there for 5 years now already, they were happy to accommodate me.
sig
Yes. It really is that simple. I brought in my bill when I switched from US Cellular to Verizon, paid some fee for "processing," and was out the door within 40 minutes with my new Verizon carrier handling calls with my originally US Cellular number.
As far as avoiding RadioShack, around here (Iowa) we have a lot of Verizon shops/Technolgy Huts in the malls. They handle hookups/etc. Worth a shot I guess.
Other than that, Radio Shack is a lot better now than they were. Then again, I've never had a problem with then.
Make sure that the new carrier gets your name right with the old carrier, otherwise you won't exist. On top of that, cingular put the request into AT&T as a wireLINE to wireLESS port, rather than a wireLESS to wireLESS. I waited a week to get the new phone working, and I am not all that jazzed about the quality of service.
I am sticking with T-Mobile since they are the only ones not putting additional fees on my bill for this. I was seriously considering Sprint but quite frankly, the only thing T-Mobile doesn't have is coverage in rural areas like Sprint does with analog roam.
More minutes, cheaper, not nickle and dimed to death for features, and I don't have to pay just to play a stupid game on my cell phone.
I was hoping T-Mobile would give me like a free month for renewing my contract but they said neh so I said "well poo poo on you you" but I am sticking with them.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
Remember: The old adage "fight fire with fire" does not apply to non-metaphorical fires.
;-)
Actually it does -- a wildfire sucks air from earth surface like crazy, so if you ignite another fire just at the right place at the right time it will be propagating towards the original fire and when they collide both will have no more fuel to burn.
Learned from some cowboys/indians book when I was a kid
Paul B.
The law says that phone companies have to allow for number portability. The law does NOT say the phone companies have to make it easy for the consumer.
For instance, when switching from AT&T to Verizon (while keeping your number the same) in my area you are forced to carry both your old phone and your new phone until May 2004. You place calls on your new phone but you still receive them on your old phone.
Call me crazy but I'll wait a good year or so until it's at least a bit more customer friendly.
The only thing keeping them from making it worse is that no one wants to get the worst press. So it appears they're going to drag their feet and make things as difficult as possible for as long as possible, and they're going to do it just up to the point that they can't get slammed any worse than anyone else in the industry. Like some inverse version of competition.
Q-"How poorly can we comply?"
A-"What are our competitors getting away with?"
Operator, give me the number for 911!
He wanted to move from Qwest to ATT. Bought the ATT phone, ATT requested the number from Qwest, twice. Qwest denied the request both times, because the request specified a window of 3 hours, and Qwest requires a 24hr window to make the change.
He now carries 2 cell phones: 1 (qwest) to receive calls, and 1 (ATT) to make calls. This has been over a week, and they still can't get it straightened out. He's even gone to the local news and been interviewed for a story, hoping the bad publicity will prompt some action. It seems like, for all of the warning the phone co's had, they still haven't worked out a lot of the systems necessary to make the switch.
The funny thing is, the FCC only 'recommends' a timeframe for making a switch, but states right on their site that there is no required time limit. Talk about a loophole the cellphone companies can drive a truck full of cash through! My coworker could end up paying for two phones indeffinately.
Need a simple, easy to use data tier generator? http://www.gryphinsoftware.com/
.. with AT&T Wireless, at least.
The day after the portability law went into effect, I headed to Verizon to get the new LG VX6000 and to switch over from ATT Wireless to Verizon Wireless.
Verizon seemed to do their part pretty quickly. Activation was quick, I was able to call out in 15 minutes. While I am able to call out on my new phone, I still (and remember, it's been a WEEK) cannot receive phone calls because ATT Wireless is taking their sweet ass time to finish their portion of the porting.
I read the law for the portability, and I expected a major loophole. No timeline or period was stated in the law claiming the maximum amount of time a company is allowed to take with the process. I've called AT&T Wireless a numerous amount of times and they keep telling me the same thing.. "Systems are down". When asked for an explanation, the representative can't even elaborate on the reason because, well honestly, i don't think they have any clue what the hell is going.
I don't know if anyone else is experiencing this (I live in metro New York), but this sure as hell is frustrating. After this post I am planning to call AT&T Wireless, again, and if they dare say "systems are down" I think I'll flip out.. something I rarely do.
So yeah, don't expect everything to work right away, especially with AT&T Wireless.
"The ones who dont do anything are always the ones who try to pull you down" -- Henry Rollins
I have had verizon wireless for years and I've been waiting for the "Can you hear me now? Good." guy to come around my area so they could improve the coverage. Well with number porting allowed I switched to T-Mobile and now have much better coverage where I need it! I did borrow my sisters T-Mobile phone before so I knew I would get signal. The process was painless. I called verizon and made sure I wasn't under a contract anymore and then walked into a T-Mobile store. Took a bit of time for them to do the paperwork since it was the first number port that the manager who was helping me had done. A little less then 24 hours later my new Sony Ericsson T-610 phone was working.
-- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
We switched last week. After doing some research about what we needed from our cel phone company, we went to T-Mobile. We dont do alot of travelling in the countryside around where we live, we only need coverage along interstates and major cities. GSM was important, beacuse we do alot of international travel, and T-Mobile also has a liberal policy of simunlocking their phones, so we can switch to prepaid sims while are out of the country. Switching from Sprint took about a day, AT&T was about three days. The call to switch was fine. The call to check status after it took more than 24 hours to port, sucked. 1 hour on hold, and no straight answers in sight. That being said, I'm glad its done, my wife and I are finally on the same company and family plan, with no number changes.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
It's Pi isn't it?
"Talk minus action equals nothing" - Joey Shithead, D.O.A.
"Talk minus action equals
I'm surprised it's not been noted here, but AT&T has apparently been having HORRIBLE computer problems with their back-end infrastructure for their GSM network. It's taking them days to provision phones, transfer numbers, etc. You probably got whacked by that.
Now, if they could get 911 calls to trace to a location on cell phone, they'd have something.
They can. The company I work for does it up and down the east coast. It's called "Phase II Compliance". Phase I is getting auto-magic locations from land-line 911 calls. Phase II is cell phone geo-location. The phone companies all have the ability, it's the local 911 call-centers that don't. (That and getting the phone companies to play nicely with each other and co-operate is like getting the Israelis and the Palestinians to share.)
-Ab
Nothing fails quite like prayer.
All number portability means to me is another $5 charge on my land-line phone bill. Thank you FCC. This number portability is just plain stupid. How long before people start demanding that their e-mail addresses be portable when they change ISPs?
....Expect a LONG wait. Moving to Sprint from Verion for business reasons they said 2.5 to 6 hours. A week later, I was still waiting - and you are going to love the reason - the programmers had set the SS number fields as numeric - so anything with a leading zero - would not port.
It's 10 days later and here I sit - without it ported.........what a joke
I live in the SF Bay Area and switched from Cingular to Verizon on Monday. After two years of wretched coverage, there was no force on earth that could have made me stay with Cingular.
I walked into the Verizon store, picked out a phone and a plan and within 2 hours was switched over. I didn't even have to bring in any documentation and I was surprised how painles entire processes was.
It was the best buying experience I've had in a long time. I'd rather not have to pay the $1.75 per month for a service that should be standard, but given the choice between the fee and freedom to switch numbers versus no fee but no choice, go ahead and bill me.
This is true with the cheaper phones. But more expensive devices (such as the Thera palmtop) WILL more to a different carrier, as long as they use the same type of signal (CDMA vs GSM, etc)...some even have (relatively) inexpensive modules that can be swapped in and out to move to a different network. Many of your so-called world phones have both...
Of course, the carrier lock in is WHY these phones are cheaper. That "free" phone probably costs closer to $100+, all costs told, but they recoup it so quickly with the margin on their service that it's actually more profitable to gimmick you into purchasing than it is to be honest with costs.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
You could, of course, get one of those cell phone docking systems that tie into your home phone, then move your number to a cell line.
That way you have the conveniance of using your home phones, but you're only paying for your cell phone.
I have had Cingular (formerly Pacbell Wireless) since '98. My last contract with Cingular expired in '99. After that I was obviously month-to-month and have been ever since. I can change my rate plan as frequently as I would like without worrying about signing another contract and when I want a phone I just go to one of the reputable resellers online and buy myself a new unlocked phone. I find that most phones are $20-$50 bought at retail than what Cingular would charge me for the phone including the contract.
With and unlocked phone and no contract I am free to switch providers and use number portability whenever I wish. My phone will work with any of the GSM carriers (Cingular, AT&T, T-Mobile) so I don't need to get into a new contract if I change providers. People need to have more foresight into NOT getting sucked into these 'deals' that providers offer for free cell phones and getting tangled in a contract.
-
aphex
I Steal Music!
I find myself thankful every day that the number "1" is still the number "1" no matter where I go.
Thank god for number portability.
nope. number portability hasn't done a thing for me. my contract is up in a month and i'll be switching providers, t-mobile has very poor coverage in the area i moved to recently.
getting a new number is something i actually want. this way i know who has the new number and no calls from people i'm hiding out from who knew the old one.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
I was off-contract with T-Mobile, and had experienced many bandwith problems with them. I'm near an interstate interchange-- traveling calls fill the entire tower. I noticed an amazing deal on a treo 600 on amazon, and decided to get it, knowing that I could port it to SprintPCS, where I have another cell phone, and much better service.
I initiated the transfer on Wed, 11/26. I had heard rumblings of portability problems with the wrong information being entered into the system, so I made sure "customer care" specialist repeated all of the information back to me. They gave me an original "due date" of Saturday, 11/30 at Noon.
Saturday rolled around and no transfer. I called back, and it turns out Sprint submitted the wrong address to the WLNP system. If the addresses don't match, it won't port. Nobody had called me in 3 days. To make matters worse, the address they submitted was my old address- 4 years and 3 addresses ago! It was my original address with Sprint, not even my current one they had on file!!
To cut a long story short, I've called Sprint 5 times since then, still no port 7 days later, and each time I call, they give me the wrong address issue, even though I've corrected it 6 times.
This most recent time, I waited 2 hours (on a landline) to speak to someone in the Sprint WLNP dept. They eventually got T-mobile on the line. Finally, they both agreed that it was the FCC-contracted third party that was the holdup, but that their system was in the middle of an "update" and was unaccessable for 2 hours. (In the middle of a business day?!!?)
This system is not working. If these companies had spent the time and effort making this work instead of fighting it, and maybe tested it at least once, it would work better.
But because there are so many parties involved, they figured they didn't have to, because there are 2 other people they can point the finger at.
I've yet to hear from a single AT&T person online who's successfully ported.
If you've having problems such as me, make sure to REPORT IT.
Other resources I've been using, mostly to comisserate:
Howard Forums
Sprintusers.com
Number portability forum
Wait until they get the kinks out-- the system should take but a few hours, not more than a week!
My saga starts on Nov. 24 at about 8pm EST. I went into a Verizon Wireless retail store hoping to port my number from Cingular to Verizon. The kind young lady helped me pick out a phone, and then we went through the paper work. After about 40 minutes I was told it would take between 24 & 48 hours for the process to complete.
I waited the 48 hours (a little less actually), just to give them the benefit of the doubt and then called in the afternoon on the following Wednesday. When I called they said they were still working on it, and to give them another 24 hours.
I gave them 48 hours and then called again on the Friday after Thanksgiving. When I called they said the first request was rejected because the address on the accounts didn't match. I corrected the incorrect address with Verizon's customer service on the phone. The person then proceeded to re submit the request and they promised it would be done within 24 hours.
I waited the 24 hours and I called again on Saturday to get a status update. This time, according the Verizon, they submitted the reuqest but Cingular took too long to acknoledge the request therefore it was dropped. I have no idea why I wasn't notified of this, or why they didn't submit the request again. Anyhow, they submitted the request a 2nd time and assured me it would be completed within 24 hours.
Those 24 hours came and went and it was now Sunday and I called again. I was told almost the same thing I was told on Saturday. This time they told me they submitted the reuquest and they were waiting on Cingular to acknoledge it. I tried calling Cingular, but their customer service is only open until 9pm EST, so I would have to wait until Monday to get in touch with Cingular.
Monday rolls around and I call verizon one more time just to make sure it's safe to contact Cingular before my number has been ported. They say the last request was not fulfiled and they would initiate it again and the guy PROMISED it'd be done by the next day. He swore up and down.
The next day, Tuesday, rolls around and there's still no port. I call verizon and they say they're waiting on Cingular. I call Cingular and they say they've responded but Verizon took too long to respond to their acknoledgement so the request was cancelled. This is the same thing that happened on Saturday, except this time Verizon didn't respond! Dammit! Anyhow, at that point I called up Verizon and told them what Cingular said. They said they'd re-submit the request again and then call Cingular on a conference call to make sure everything happens. Finally, some decent customer service! So, she submits the port request and gets Cingular on the phone. Cingular sees the request, checks the data and then acknowledges the request, Verizon then sees the acknowledgement and gives it final approval. Cingular goes away and then the Verizon lady told me it was scheduled to be completed by 4:00pm EST. 4:00 rolls around and it's not done. At 4:30 I call verizon again to see what's going on. The lady tells me it's pending at the NPAC and to give it a few more hours. I called again at 8:30pm to check because I still hadn't gotten the txt message I was promised once the port was complete. This time she told me the NPAC was done processing at 10:54pm GMT. She said to give it a few more hours to wait for my txt message. I called it a day and decided I'd give them until the next day.
I woke up this morning without a txt message and with an incomplete port. I get to work and then call Verizon again! The lady tells me it's status is currently active at Verizon and at the NPAC. She asked if I had tried updating my phone and I told her I had. She tells me it should be working and she transfers me to Verizon tech support. I go through some stuff with the tech lady and she tells me to update my phone again. Guess what! It worked! I got my old number on my new phone with my new provider! The port was finally complete!
So, to make a long story short I initiated my port on
[Got Hosting?]
No, the original parent posters' point is that the argument can be made that as soon as companies treat you like a revenue stream, and not a person, you cease being a revenue stream to them .. because you take your business elsewhere.
.. ie, to raise our standard of living and increase our satistfaction in life. This is why I think its a moot point to assert that humans = revenue streams, to the extent where such a level of cynical self-awareness may in fact be detrimental to the health of our society and the economy.
Its much like the argument that there is no such thing as altruism. Sure, maybe theres no such things as altruism, that we do things purely for self, including helping others in seemingly selfless ways. However, if society as a whole accepts that there is no such thing as altruism, its behaviour changes. People stop doing things for other people, since they figure, as long as we dont expect each other to be selfless, they may as well stop doing the things they used to do for other people. The perception is that if you're helping others to help yourself, why not just help yourself and skip the 'middleman'? The punchline is that unless you can prove that acting selfishly is inately 'cheaper' and better for society than acting selflessly, changing the way people think about themselves and their actions causes their behaviour to change - and in this case, I postulate, not to the benifit of those participating in said society.
If companies want citizens = maximum possible revenue streams, its probably not in their best interest to flaunt the equation in front of us. People have a way of resisting expected behaviour when they suspect they are being manipulated to act in the interests of somebody else. It is entirely possible (and this is what I believe) that the more self-aware people become to their true 'roles' in the economy, the less they act in the interests and wishes of companies. It poisons the natural social dynamics people exhibit in a capitalist market, and weakens the ability of the system to serve its intended purpose
"Old man yells at systemd"
You can use this to your advantage - since you never agreed to that $2.20 a month charge when you first signed up, your original contract is null and void.
Call them and demand to be put on month-to-month payments because you never agreed to that charge in your original contract. Then you're free to come or go as you please!
If it was me, I'd see if I could get them to throw in the latest phone model for free if I signed the NEW contract.
Easy way to get yourself a nifty new color camera phone!
Well I called both VZW and ATT.. same bs.. except this time I demanded from ATT that they transfer me to their portability department (which seems to be the only way to get through).. the woman was nice.. told me AGAIN the "systems were down", but told me to call in 2-3 hours and gave me her direct extension..
on a further note, if any ATT (or non-ATT) customers have any portability related questions and cannot get through.. try this number.. 1-800-241-0335 It's the "hidden" portability department number. The queue seems to be pretty fast (barely waited 30 seconds), so give that a shot
"The ones who dont do anything are always the ones who try to pull you down" -- Henry Rollins
On Saturday, November 22nd I went into a T-Mobile store and bought a new phone and activated service with a new phone number with an intent to port my old number over from AT&T Wireless Services on Monday the 24th.
On Monday I called T-Mobile to begin the porting process. It took a little over an hour on the phone and at the end of the call they said it would take 3 to 24 hours before the change would be effective.
24 hours later, nothing had happened yet. I called T-Mobile back and was told that the request had been rejected by AT&T because my name on the request didn't match my name in their system. I grabbed my AT&T bill and reconfirmed with T-Mobile that it had, in fact, been entered correctly the first time. They resubmitted the request and said to check back in another 5 hours if it hadn't gone through.
5 hours later I called back to learn that AT&T rejected the request again saying that the ZIP code didn't match. We double-checked and it was exactly as it was listed on the AT&T bill. They said to check back again on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, more of the same. We went through again to make sure that all of the information in the request was exactly as it was listed on my AT&T bill and resubmitted the request. They said that if it failed this time, I was stuck until Friday since they wouldn't be open on Thanksgiving.
On Friday, nothing had changed. I called T-Mobile again and was told that AT&T was having serious computer problems and that all requests were being rejected. They said there was nothing else they could do right now and that there was no ETA. We were all at the mercy of AT&T and were simply stuck.
I checked again on Saturday and Sunday and got the same answer both times.
On Sunday I sent an eMail to AT&T Wireless Services telling them that there was no excuse for their incompetence given the fact that they've had over seven years since the original FCC mandate to prepare for this.
On Monday I called T-Mobile again and talked to someone about the situation... specifically about my concerns regarding double-billing since I have an active T-Mobile account right now and I have to keep my AT&T service active until the conversion is complete or I forfeit my number. The T-Mobile rep was very sympathetic and said that she would take care of it by making sure I am not charged for my T-Mobile service until after the portability request is successfully completed.
It is now Wednesday. 9 days since I submitted my port request. Three days since I sent an eMail to AT&T Customer Care. I still haven't heard anything from AT&T regarding the eMail I sent them on Sunday except for an automated form letter stating that they received my eMail and would respond as quickly as possible. I'm not holding my breath.
I honestly believe that their problems may not be as severe as they claim and that this is, at least partially, an attempt by them to get their existing customers to "give up" on switching to another carrier. Many people who have requested number ports away from AT&T have done just that... after become so frustrated with the delays and excuses they've decided to just stick with AT&T rather than suffer through continued aggravation. If nothing else, AT&T is delaying the departure of dissatisfied customers, forcing them to continue paying for poor quality service until the alleged computer problems are corrected. In fact, a number of customers have reported in various Internet message boards (including AT&T's own support forums) incidents where they have called in to simply cancel their service and were told by the AT&T rep that they couldn't do it at that time because the system was down and that they would need to call back later.
I, personally, intend to continue my quest to move my number to T-Mobile if for no other reason than to make it clear to AT&T that they're not just losing a customer, they're losing a customer to one of their competitors. Number portab
The day that portability went into effect, they came out with their Customers First deal to convince existing customers to stay. Here's what it consists of: But check out the fine print: Whoo whee! Now I can renew my contract every year with AT&T for the privilege of subsidizing the "free" phones for another two years! Gosh, and they can "free" me of any pesky grandfathered-in deals each time I get my "free" phone.
I'm on AT&T wireless and I like their service, but this customer retention effort is pure crap.
-- "Sucks to your ass-mar"
People won't be switching cellular providers fast, they will simply stay loyal to the providers that have been assraping them for their entire cellular lives.
You are assuming that just because the (valid) problems you listed above are true that somehow lifting this other (valid) barrier to switching isn't going to shake up the market and lead to increased competition?
How often do you hear people saying, "My Sprint (Verizion/Cingular/etc.) service is a joke..." People want to switch. Now they'll start shopping around. Providers will start doing things like improving customer service or offering incentives to get people to switch. Competition will lead to a better customer experience.
Besides, people like buying cool new phones with cool new features. If your old number can switch to a new phone with a new provider -- great. You have your rationalization to upgrade to a new phone.
You may have presented some facts about SIM card locking, but given the frequency with which people buy new cell phones (computers, shirts, etc.) in the USA, it really won't hit that many people. They won't feel a pinch so I suspect your "problem" may stay the way it is for a while. But to say that people won't switch providers because we've "only" allowed them to keep their numbers is willful ignorance on your part.
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
We do a lot of land line number porting at work to get local sales numbers and its my job to make sure that they all work. Let me tell you not all carriers have the same diligence with updating their call routing. And since most of the phone routing is done on the call's originating side there are lots of places where number ports can go wrong.
After you get your number ported to a new carrier test it from every carrier you can get your hands on. If you don't mind the one time costs do some 10-10 dial arounds to test some LD carriers. If you have any small telcos in your area be sure to test from them. Typically the smaller the telco the worse the porting results. (but many times they are the easiest convince to make a fix) And be sure to test the number by originating a call from your old provider. Providers are notorious for not pulling the routing for the ported number and then don't forward the call.
If you do end up getting a problem with reaching your number after the port bitch up a storm to your new carrier. They do have the power and the ability to get in touch with the companies that are screwing things up and they can get these things fixed. Don't let them tell you otherwise. It will probably take 2 days to a week to get the problem fixed but make no mistake they can get it fixed for you.
After saying all this I want to say that number portability for the most part is great. After all the initial hurdles are out of the way we almost never have a problem with the number ever again.
Uh, have you ever tried this new thingie-a-bod called DNS? It let's your application communicate on the Int'rnet without using those pesky 32 bit IP addresses. I think Microsoft invented it.
i've had my (now) previous cell provider for almost 3 years and have only been loyal because of the phone number. its 1 digit off my home phone number and everyone i know has it. i switched the day this new law went into effect and got a plan that gave me 4x the anytime minutes for the same price, a brand new cell phone for free and it has much better reception. it did take a couple hours to change the number but after that its been working perfectly.
And I haven't even changed my serivce yet. I got a letter yesterday saying my monthly rate from T-Mobile was now $10 cheaper. More competition is driving prices down more. Now I just need a plan that costs $20/mo instead of $49/mo.
While number portability may be a good thing on the surface I can't see switching unless the service is absolutely terrible at the present. Since phones are not interoperable between carriers I end up getting stuck with an expensive new paperweight while having to pay to get a new phone. Contracts may be bad, but being locked into a provider due to hardware is far worse. We wouldn't tolerate this with computers or land-line phones, why are cellular consumers willing to put up with it?
If real portability existed it would help not only the consumer by allowing them to actually change what company they want, but would allow a greater choice of phones. Instead of the half-dozen that your carrier supports you'd have access to all of the phones on the market. A move that would spur the development of phones further and help to weed out the bad designs even more.
Don't get me wrong, number portability is a nice step, but hardware portability will be the big one.
I switched from SprintPCS to AT&T Wireless without any issues at all. I ordered my new phone from the AT&T site, they sent it to me via FedEX, and my number ported later in the day that I received my phone. No issues at all.
I tried porting a number from Sprint to Cingular, and they came back and said "not possible", which is bullshit. I decided to just forget that, and port my landline number to the new phone instead, from SBC (which is the parent of Cingular). They said "not possible". I've filed FCC complaints against both Sprint and SBC, and have been hounding SBC customer support for the last 6 days to get this resolved. The long and short of it is, there's a big fine for them to pay if they're not following the FCC mandate, and there's a very easy online way to file complaints with the FCC. Who knows how long it takes for the FCC to actually process the complaints, but I figure it can't hurt the later-adopters for us early-adopters to give the telcos a bureaucratic kick in the ass.
Well, good sir, (or madam) since you are with AT&T, you are S.O.L. I tried leaving AT&T for T-Mobile and taking my phone number with me. They didn't cough it up. AT&T is in violation of the FCC order mandating number portability.
More details here.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
I instantly got some smooth bloke asking "is there a problem sir", who (now that he's been prompted) took the time to look at my 5 years of usage and had the authority to offer me
- Free phone upgrade up to 300 quid ($500)
- Change my tariff to a custom package to fit my recent history of call + SMS usage
- Discount the monthly fee for that tariff by 60%
So, I was paying to much before (aren't we all), but they didn't worry too much as they knew the number was valuable to me, now I don't have to get shirty or threaten to close my account, I just ask for a PAC code and I have some leverage...I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. - George Best
to stalk my ex.
Number Portability is incredibly useful for GSM users. Since all we have to do is switch SIM cards from one carrier to another, we NEVER have to worry about getting new phones and paying extra for that. I'm euro, but has lived in Texas since 1995 and Tmobile/Voicestream has been my provider forever. They have NEVER blinked when I say I need my new phone unlocked, because they know that keeping customers happy will benefit them in the long run. Right now, with my unlocked Sony Ericsson t610, I can fly to Norway, Sweden, Germany and use my local SIM cards there and pay local rates instead of $2/minute while roaming. GSM will truly take off here too, and good times for all of us. My wet dream would be if Cingular, T-mobile and AT&T wireless worked together on ONE kick ass nationwide GSM network, and competed on prices, customer service, callings plans and phones, instead of pissing customers off with shitty networks and dropped calls. -out