Telephony: Port Whine - local number portability

Byline: Jason Ankeny

There are bad arguments, and then there are really bad arguments - the kind of desperate, ill-advised rationalizations that, in attempting to deflect one problem, open up a whole different and far more ominous can of worms. Take the "Pete Rose should be reinstated if he admits he bet on baseball" argument. That suggests that if Rose were to finally confess to breaking the cardinal rule that earned him a lifetime ban from the sport in the first place, his admission of guilt would itself be sufficient to win his reinstatement. Huh? It defies logic.

And then there are the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association's arguments against wireless local number portability. With the FCC-mandated Nov. 24 LNP deadline fast approaching, the wireless industry limped into the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week to petition the three-judge panel to block the regulation. Wireless carriers have long maintained that wireless number portability will dramatically raise costs while doing little to stimulate competition, while conversely arguing for the implementation of wireline-to-wireless LNP on the grounds it will persuade consumers to give up their landlines once and for all. Still, last Tuesday Andrew McBride, an attorney representing Verizon Wireless and the CTIA, told the court, "It's very speculative to say [wireless LNP] even offers consumer benefits."

The wireless industry wants to have its cake and eat it too, which is ironic considering the result would be to deny customers the same freedom and mobility their technology has always championed. Refusing consumers the right to take their wireless numbers with them when they switch carriers is tantamount to taking money out of their hands. Small businesses and the self-employed can't risk losing numbers already familiar to their own customers.

Of course, it's for the same reasons that so many wireless users are reluctant to completely forgo their wireline services. Which means that as it relates to wireline-to-wireless portability, the CTIA is basically arguing for the same consumer benefits they're denying wireless LNP even offers. Again - huh?

Carriers' outrage over wireless number portability is above all a tacit admission of their failure to keep consumers happy. If customers are satisfied with their service, they will stay, regardless of LNP. It's as simple as that. That so many wireless operators fear the mass subscriber exodus that number portability promises to bring should serve as a wake-up call for the industry. The CTIA may claim otherwise, but LNP will be the catalyst for competition the likes of which the wireless industry has never experienced, and the carriers offering the largest network footprints, best customer service and most appealing pricing plans will reap the rewards. That's what a gambling man like Pete Rose would call a sure thing.