Starting on November 24, 2003, the FCC will require cellular phone companies to allow their users to switch carriers and keep their phone number. So, for instance, if you aren’t happy with T-Mobile you can switch to AT&T or Sprint without the inconvenience of losing your phone number.
The bad thing is that within the first 12 months after this goes into effect, polls estimate that over 30 million cell phone users will switch carriers. These (presumably) are people who are currently unhappy with their cell providers, but haven’t switched yet because their number is important to them for business or personal reasons.
Cell phone companies aren’t looking forward to this (and I don’t blame them) because of all the hassle it’s going to cause them. However, they are also trying to convince the FCC that this will hurt competition and raise prices in the cell phone industry. Nonsense!
If anything, this will bring more competition into the mobile phone industry. Think about it. If you’re thinking of starting a cell phone company, number portability translates into more customers. We’ll have new mobile providers coming out our ears. Plus, in order to keep existing customers, mobile carriers will need to increase their customer service and lower their prices (or make their contracts more strict, but that just makes them look bad). All of this means better competition, lower prices, and a lot of happy people who get to keep their cell phone numbers.
Here are a few articles on the subject of number portability:
1. Cellular Phone Number Portability on Horizon
2. Number Portability May Spark Wireless Migration