 - Wireless number portability is the ability of a mobile customer to retain the same phone number when they switch carriers; wireline-to-wireless number portability allows customers to switch from their landline telephone service to a wireless provider while retaining the same telephone number. The lack of number portability between wireless providers kept many consumers from changing services because of the inconvenience of changing their phone number on business cards and other documents, and informing all their contacts of the new number. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that all wireless carriers implement number portability by November 24, 2003.
As a consequence of the new capability, mobile customers may switch carriers more often, thus increasing competition among wireless service providers, just as Local Number Portability (LNP) did among wireline telephone companies when it was put into effect in the late-1990s. According to a Forrester Research report, almost 22 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers said they would consider switching service providers if they could keep their current number, while only nine percent would do so if they had to get a new number.
The FCC ordered service providers to offer wireline-to-wireless portability in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States by Nov. 24, 2003 and that it would be available for customers in other areas by May 24, 2004. Gartner research predicted that up to 10 percent of current wireline customers would switch to wireless once they could do that without changing their telephone numbers.
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Learn more about Cell Phones and Cellular Technology |
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| Cellular bill consolidation: Making the most of managed mobility: Cellular bill consolidation can provide companies with low-overhead cellular management approaches that deliver predictable costs. |
| Cellular broadband is mobile and reliable: Cellular broadband is available from most of the major carriers now and in this guest column, John Shelper says it's reliable, available and relatively cheap. |
| Dual-mode Wi-Fi and cellular phones to grow: Dual-mode Wi-Fi and cellular VoIP phones are poised for huge growth, while mobile and single-mode phone sales continue to climb. |
| Mobile Radio Systems: This chapter is an intro to the various mobile radio systems. It provides a foundation for comparing competing mobile radio access systems for supporting mobile broadband services. |
| Cost-effective mobile connectivity: As companies facing mounting mobile connectivity costs you need to make sense of the available mobile connectivity options and reduce costs before they get out of control. |
| FCC releases list of 700MHz spectrum auction bidders: As the auction approaches, the FCC releases the list of bidders for rights to the 700MHz wireless spectrum. |
| Wireless carriers: The good, the bad, and the just plain annoying: It's not unusual for customers dealing with their wireless carriers to get bad service, but in his latest editorial Adama Brown recounts an especially bad example. |
| Managed mobile services: This managed mobile services series, examines services for device management, email, enterprise applications, and cellular telephony. It concludes with a best practices guide. |
| LAST UPDATED: |
30 Apr 2004
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