B l u e t o o t h N e w s . c o m   

By: David Shier - Managing Editor

It looks like the long awaited telephone number portability will finally be a reality for cellular customers in the USA!

According to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, the deadline of November 24, 2003 – which was extended previously, will not be extended again.

What Does This Mean to You As a Consumer?

It means that you can switch cellular providers and still keep your existing phone number. While the “churn rate” for cellular customers is about 30 percent, many customers stick with their existing provider simply because too many people know their number.

In my own case, I use my mobile number as my business number for my consulting services. For that reason, I currently can’t switch carriers. However, come this November, I will be able to choose my carrier based on who gives the best service, rates, and data features.

What it doesn’t mean is the that you can take your number with you if you move to another area. Number portability doesn’t mean that you can keep the same number if you move across the country. Your new carrier must provide service in the area code for the number you have. So you can’t go shopping for a number from some small GSM provider in the Midwest that might lowball rates compared to a national carrier that provides service in your big city in the Northeast.

What Does This Mean to the Carriers?

The carriers have been fighting this for years. They are worried that the churn rate will skyrocket. Of course, they saw it will cost billions of dollars to implement, but that is just nonsense. In the early days of telephone switchboards followed by electromechanical relays, the area code and the prefix defined a physical hierarchy of equipment. But today, all telephone switching systems are run by computer. Assigning a telephone number to a mobile phone is a simple matter of programming. Of course, there will need to be some programming changes to support the number transfer from one carrier to another, and authorization issues are important to prevent “slamming” (a carrier switching you to their service without your permission.) But these issues have been addressed by the local wired telephone providers already, so it shouldn’t be too hard for the mobile carriers – all of whom have newer switching systems than the old wired services anyway.

So while the carriers have tried to use scare tactics to avoid this change, they will now have to face reality and compete for your business. 

Things could get ugly for carriers such as Sprint PCS that have received low satisfaction ratings in customer surveys, but have kept a core customer base because they need to keep their mobile number. On the other hand, carriers that have recently expanded into new markets, such as T-Mobile in California, may benefit by attracting customers that have been with another carrier for years.

A benefit to all mobile carriers is that number portability could become the catalyst for some customers to replace their “landline” phone service with a mobile phone. After all, while you can’t keep your number if you move across the country, you can keep it when you move across the city. That’s something you can’t do with your landline.

On the other hand, carriers that are owned or partnered with landline providers, such as Cingular (SBC) and Verizon, could offer special rate plans that combine landline and mobile service.

The Bottom Line

Of course the best news for us consumers is that the carriers will not just have to make good deals to attract you away from their competitors, but they will have to also work harder to keep you as an existing customer. Also, companies such as Sprint and Verizon that have been slow to offer Bluetooth will have to follow the lead of the GSM carriers. On the other hand, the GSM carriers, who’s GPRS data service lags behind the CDMA carriers’ 1xRTT in speed, will need to push ahead with EDGE and/or WCDMA if they want to attract away business customers that want fast and cheap data service.

Barring another last minute delay, 2004 should be a great year for mobile phone customers in the USA.