Number portability? Better wait

Communications News, Jan, 2004

A new report from Mobile Competency (www.mobilecompetency.com), an independent analyst firm for the mobile and wireless market based in North Providence, R.I., finds that CIOs and IT managers should avoid wireless number portability (WNP) until at least spring 2004 because the industry is clearly not ready to meet the demand.

Enterprise users that were considering changing carriers as soon as WNP took effect (Nov. 24) were urged by Bob Egan. president and founder of Mobile Competency, not to port until the end of the first quarter of 2004. The report contends that while Nextel, Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless are currently the best prepared to ensure that enterprise customers can port with little or no service disruption, they still appear only 50% ready for WNP. The report warns CIOs that two well-prepared carriers are needed to make a successful port, and so far, only a handful of carriers are anywhere near ready.

"If ports fail en masse, don't he surprised when the wireless industry blames the FCC for both moving the deadline to the worst possible time of the year and failing to craft rules that address every possible scenario," Egan says. "There's plenty of blame to go around, but at the end of the day, that's cold comfort for enterprise subscribers whose mobile phones stop working."

Mobile Competency interviewed the six largest U.S. carriers to assess their ability to provide enterprise customers with quick, glitch-free ports and a smooth transition of key services, such as wireless data. According to the findings, one month before the WNP deadline, no major carrier had completed testing with all five of its largest rivals, and only Nextel and Sprint PCS provide guidelines that specifically address enterprise issues and concerns.

"Carriers ere finally getting serious about WNP," Egan says, "but we don't see any evidence that individual carriers, let alone the industry as a whole, have done the extensive testing necessary to ferret out the major problems before Nov. 24. It's too little, too late, so enterprise customers should wait."