Carriers Might Profit From Cell Number Portability

Makarand writes "Carriers that are adding cell-number portability fees to your monthly cell phone bills (while fighting against actually implementing the requirement) may actually rake in profits from these levies as the total amounts collected will be more than the projected costs of meeting the FCC's number portability requirements. Although federal law requires that such fees be 'just and reasonable', it does not require reporting of their actual expenses. Consumer advocates feel that the number portability verification processes required are similar to those used by long-distance phone companies when a customer switches from one service provider to another and there is little reason to believe that expenses to meet portability requirements should vary widely among carriers and be so excessive as to bring profits for the carriers."

Side effects

[Advocadus Diaboli]

I live in Germany where we have that feature for some while. One problem now is that I call a number that "belongs" to the same provider that I'm using, so I think that I do a call inside the providers net (which usually is cheap), but in fact the one that I call has switched to another provider and my call costs much more than I expect. :-(

Number portability my ass...

[silentbozo]

Verizon has been collecting "number portability fund" fees on my land-line for years. Can I migrate my number to another carrier? Hell no! Can I get my fees waived/refunded? Sorry, but those funds go into a common pool to provide number portability. But I can't move MY number! Sorry, but your number is in an area where number portability is not offered...

The only way to win this game is not to play - I canceled my second line earlier this year. Take that Verizon!

portability in oz

[narkotix]

In australia there was a big thing about the largest carrier preventing number porting. Our consumer watchdog (ACCC) got onto the case and made things start to happen which was good for us consumers!
Here is a report [aca.gov.au] detailing what the ACCC requested from the ACA (australian communications authority) to look into number porting for australian carriers.

Netherlands

[Captain_Chaos]

Here in the Netherlands cell phone providers have been forced to let customers keep their existing phone numbers from competitors for a few years now. They don't charge extra for it (I don't think they're allowed, the mobile phone business is very strictly regulated over here), but they do have a tendency to take much longer to port your number than they should. I think it works moderately well, prices aren't exactly low but I think they'd be signigicantly higher without mandatory number portability.

Verizon

[heli0]

"Verizon says it has not yet decided whether to levy a number portability fee."

http://news.com.com/2117-1039-1020501.html [com.com]
Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Denny Strigl said Tuesday that unlike rivals, Verizon won't collect monthly or one-time fees from subscribers who want to keep their original telephone number after switching carriers.

Has Verizon wavered in their stance in the past two months, or are they just trying to leave themselves some wriggle room?

Re:Verizon

[Anonymous Coward]

I use Verizon, and they kick serious ass. They have one of the best coverage areas and the people *I* deal with are all extremely helpful and very polite. There isn't a problem I've run across that they haven't fixed within about 5 minutes of me calling them (that doesn't count the dead spot I hit whenever I pass one of the 3 military bases that are nearby).

Re:How soon will we run out of phone numbers again

[Asmodai]

In the Netherlands we already have had that system in place for years.

Our normal land lines have prefixes for the major cities, such as:

Rotterdam - 010
Amsterdam - 020
Utrecht - 030

GSM, buzzers/pagers, and such were using 06 prefixes. Sexlines and info numbers with costs per minute/conversation are 0900 (used to be 06 as well), and free informational phonenumbers (toll-free) are 0800.

Number portability for mobile phone numbers has been regulated in the Netherlands for a while now due to OPTA. If a provider has its services down for a certain percentage in a month the OPTA will fine the appropriate provider.

Re:so what you're saying is...

[deathcow]

YES thats almost right, but you just need to make step 1 be step 2, and add the following step 1:

1a) switch engineers: implement SS7/SCP related stuff
1b) switch engineers: implement telephony switch related stuff
1c) developers: implement SCP/SS7 related provisioning methods,test
1d) developers: implement telephony switch related provisioning methods, test
1e) developers: implement API for telephony network portability
1f) developers: implement portability front end for customer service apps
1g) developers: test top to bottom, front end, middleware (like metasolv), through API
1h) developers: document for users/trainers
1i) trainers: train cust svc reps on applying portability
1j) cust service reps: apply portability !

2) cell number portability

3) profit!

Experiences in Norway

[nordicfrost]

We have this feature in our system, and it has been there for some time now. The number porting system was a real boon to the smaller price-competing phone operators who previously had problem attracting customers. One of the companies, the price and service leader, has gone from 800 subscribers to well over 100 000 in just a year. I'm switching to them, so is my friends, mom, dad, girlfriend and her family. Left is the former state monopoloy, Telenor, which is hemmoraging customers.

With number portability in a free market, the greedy actors are exposed really fast.

There is also no fee for porting here, the only fee is an optional (for the company) connection fee. The very notion of having a fee is absurd in a GSM system, remember; it is made for quick portability. Porting your subscription is done in one step: Tell your new operator that you are switching to them and be sure to mention the phone # while you're at it. Done. The new SIM card arrives after a while and the porting date comes via email. Or snailmail if you want it to.

Re:Experiences in Norway

[dillkvast]

It should also be mentioned that the Norwegian "FCC" set up a website were customers can compare prices. You just enter in how much you call, approximatly when and how many SMS's you use per month, and you get a list of the providers which is cheapest.

This, together with number portability, has really benefitted the cutomers. It should be an example for other contries to follow. It's actually a bit shocking to see the government doing something right for a change. Especially something so "technical" as regulating telecom.

Charge the company receiving the customer

[kimmop]

In Finland, the company that loses a customer, can charge the porting fees from the telco that receives the number. The standard fee is negotiated beforehand between the telcos and no company dares to (directly) charge the fee from the customer they are about to receive.

This way the telcos can't rise and obscure the prices by claiming it's because of the number portability.

Re:# portability? We don't even havephone portabil

[Anonymous Coward]

Do some research.

Cingular and AT&T are TDMA/GSM hybrid networks. Cingular has decent GSM coverage in the Carolinas -- T-Mobile roams on Cingular (free of charge) while in the Carolinas. However, I hear that much of Cingular's coverage is limited, and AT&T has more of its TDMA areas covered by GSM. AT&T and Cingular sell GAIT phones, which support GSM, TDMA, and AMPS.

T-Mobile is all GSM. In areas where T-Mobile doesn't have coverage, T-Mobile can roam on parts of Cingular's and AT&T's networks, along with many smaller regional operator's networks (e.g. West Virginia Wireless).

T-Mobile will let you change your plan while in contract, as long as it's a normal plan (not a promotional plan, which is only available to sign up for during the length of the promotion). Also, they will let you buy new phones WITHOUT extending the contract - however, you probably won't pay the prices listed on www.t-mobile.com for some phones. For example, T-Mobile lists a price of $99.99 for the Sony Ericsson T300, with a $100 mail in rebate.. As a T-Mobile customer of 5 months with good credit, I could buy it for $130 (that's with a $50 discount). Remember, cellular operators subsidize the cost of the phones they sell..

T-Mobile doesn't even offer 2 year contracts. All of their contracts are 1 year. And if you want to bring your own phone (or with some stores, pay the full unsubsided price for the phone), you can pay monthly without a contract.

I went on eBay and purchased this same phone new (battery, accessories used) for $107.50 including shipping. When I got it, I put my SIM card and immediately I could use it.

The current CDMA 1xRTT technologies deployed by Verizon and Sprint PCS are more advanced than the GSM/GRPS deployed by Cingular, ATTWS (AT&T Wireless), and T-Mobile. GRPS can't compete with the speed of 1xRTT for wireless data services.

CDMA phones can have SIM-card like functionality, called URIM. However, this is not used at all in the USA. AFAIK, Sprint cells one phone with this functionality but disables it.

Personally, I like the USA cellular billing scheme. Otherwise, you'd have to pay a lot for outgoing calls.. which I make the most with my phone.