Trend: Subscribers not milking number portability
According to a report from Analysys Research, there are few countries where more than 10 percent of mobile phone subscribers have taken advantage of number portability, which refers to the rule that a customer can take a phone number to another carrier should he or she switch carriers. In Britain and Italy, just under 10 percent of mobile users took advantage of number portability. France and Germany's figure was so small its percentage was negligible. The U.S. saw about 5 percent of mobile users taking their numbers to a new operator. The curve-breaker of the 25 countries surveyed was (surprise, surprise) Finland, which saw 55 percent of mobile users transferring their numbers to a new carrier during the four years since portability first became available.
Number portability has not ushered in a new paradigm of radically improved mobile services or customer care as the hype machine predicted so many years ago. Here's a new topic to chew on: So, when do we do away with these numbers altogether?
For more on the ineffectiveness of number portability:
- take a look at this article from the International Herald Tribune
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Comments
By Ian Gates | Posted 4:42pm | January 22, 2007
Do you think that the protability or lack there of issue is mainly to do with hefty early term fees? Also not being able to port to a different area code would impact that number a bit as well.
By John Manoogian III (jm3) | Posted 2:25am | January 23, 2007
Unbreakable long-term service contracts and ETFs counteract the utility of number portability in the States -- if you can't break up with your provider for less than $200 - $250, who cares if your number is "portable"? It's like saying that anything is portable, so long as you're willing to pay to move it.
When my car was stolen, AT&T (now Cingular /Sbc/ WhateverTF) botched the proceedings so badly that I decided to switch providers to T-Mobile. Then I was informed that since I "had disconnected service to the phone, I could no longer port my number to a new provider." Hah. (I had disabled service when it was stolen after I discovered that the car thieves were making calls with my stolen phone.)
We have a long way to go.