Copyright ©1997-2009 Glenn Fleishman except as noted otherwise. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact Glenn Fleishman at glenn at glennf.com. Photo © 2008 Laurence Chen; used with permission.
Copyright ©1997-2009 Glenn Fleishman except as noted otherwise. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact Glenn Fleishman at glenn at glennf.com. Photo © 2008 Laurence Chen; used with permission.
Turning technology from mumbo-jumbo into rich tasty gumbo
< Safari Beta Web Logging (the Other Kind) | Main | Five Unemployed Skiers >Reuters reports that cell service operators want telephone phone portability -- but only if it applies to both wireless and landline phone numbers. It's hard to argue that that's a bad thing. The cell industry cites a huge cost -- $1 billion in this article -- at providing full wireless number portability, or allowing their customer to keep their phone numbers when they switch providers.
It's a road to hell, of course, because the cell companies are already engaged in mutually assured destructive commerce in which the discounts they charge pretty much are guaranteed to lose them money. Add the ability to switch and retain numbers, and you'll see the kinds of migrations that are typically associated with species of birds.
It doesn't have to be this way: the companies have all failed to learn the lesson of the race to the bottom. They'll all wind up bankrupt or albatrosses around parent companies' necks or serving their customers horribly. But that's what happens when the only differentiator they can think of is price and Catherine "expose that flesh" Zeta-Jones versus the "can you hear me guy" guy.
Posted by Glennf at January 24, 2003 12:43 PM
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In Denmark they have number portability between mobile carriers since a couple of years ago[1].
For years (while I still lived there) they had steeply subsidized phones there as well, but the discounts have become smaller as the market got saturated. (There's barely anyone left to sell a new subscription; you can only move customers now).
- ask
[1] Of course I haven't gotten my subscription that I use once per year when I visit changed to a cheaper provider.
Posted by: Ask Bjoern Hansen at February 14, 2003 4:43 AM
It is kind of funny: In Europe Number portability is mandatory in most countries, including the UK (home of Vodafone) and Germany (home of T-Mobile). The main problem with number protability are the high call completion charges for calls to another mobile network. With number portability you never know which operator the other person is using and what the associated cost of the call are.
Posted by: Christoph Jaggi at January 29, 2003 2:55 AM
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