September 08, 2006
Mobile Phone Number Portability
Phone number portability is becoming more of an issue for people who tend to move around a lot, obviously. Tom Keating recently talked about his frustrations of moving his stationary phone number to a different VoIP provider. Imagine the problems of trying to move your mobile number. (Everytime I've changed cellular providers, I've had to get a new number.)
In Japan, mobile operators will be allowing cell phone users to keep their phone numbers [VNU Net] when they switch providers. This government-mandated option will not officially take effect until late October, but millions of switchers are expected. Part of the reason for this is that Japan has a very high percentage of mobile phone users (97 M) compared to the population size (127 M).
Portability in this situation is actually beneficial to mobile service providers because of the saturation. Customers have the advantage, but providers also benefit from customers who switch - since the chance of gaining new customers is reduced. Everyone's happy. Hopefully.
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