Cellphone Number Portability -- A Big Lie?

juuri asks: "Having spoken to a few friends it seems like troubles with cell phone portability here in the States is rampant. However today I ran into a new problem, it seems numbers aren't really portable if you move. For example if one has an LA number and moves to a different region (which vary greatly from carrier to carrier) you can not move your number with you if you switch to a new carrier such as Cingular or T-Mobile. Why not? You obviously already have the number and with nationwide roaming plans there is no reason for such distinctions. Even more alarming is that your new regional arm of your carrier may give you much trouble over your previous contract and basically refuse to give you service unless you sign up for a new, local region one. Does anyone know of a cell provider that lets you move your number, regardless of region?" It seems that the latest new thing for cellphones has turned into more of a flop, than a feature. Has anyone else run into this problem? Were you able to keep your number, or were you forced to change it?

Just did it today

[GeorgeH]

I just got my new phone from T-Mobile (via Amazon) today and called around 1:00pm to get the number portability in. The total call lasted 11 minutes, including a phonetree misstep and a service addition. They said that it would take up to 14 business days for the transfer to happen, during which I couldn't use my old number. As luck would have it, my number transferred 6 hours later and I'm up and running!

It wasn't instantanious, but I couldn't imagine things going more smoothly.

Re:the deal on porting

[evilad]

OK, so why can't I, in NYC, purchase a cell plan in a different zone, say LA? Why is it necessary that I have a mailing address in the zone where I want service?

This sounds to me like just another arbitrary way to shaft the customer.

Actually, I've had exactly the opposite experience

[Fortunato_NC]

I use Nextel, and when I needed a local number in another state, it was no problem to add a second line to my existing service with that number. The model phone I had at the time actually allowed me to have one number show up as "Line 1" and the other show up as "Line 2" - I know with Cingular, at least in NC, the limit is one number per phone.

I've since dropped the second number (you do have to sign a year contract, which is annoying), but I also know Sprint will activate a number for you anywhere from anywhere in the nation.

Also, a lot of the VoIP services will let you choose where your local number is provisioned. I know of a few folks who buy family overseas a "local" number, then send the the VoIP equipment to them. They hook it to the Internet, then call a local number to reach family in Europe or Mexico. Actually, it's pretty slick.

I think eventually, long distance service as we know it will be a thing of the past. My company pays something along the lines of 2.5 cents a minute for intra- and inter-LATA long distance (we actually run a "cooperative" that pools several companies and negotiates lower rates with the LD providers out there - if you're interested, send me an IM - we don't make any money, but the more people we sign up, the lower we can push rates down!) Eventually, the phrase "too cheap to meter" might become a reality.

If they had a seperate area code for cell phones..

[Googo]

then maybe it would be more reasonable. However, as most area codes are still linked to specific areas, the extra amount of numbers an area code in a specific region may have to handle due to people wanting to maintain that phone number may cause regions to go through very annoying area code splits, which of course would mean half of the population in that area code would suddenly have to dial extra digits to call someone in that area code.

Would be nice to have an area code just for cells for people who want easy portability to different regions, but that would also cause problems such as people not wanting to call due to long distance charges.

WTF?

[idiot900]

I did exactly what the poster claims could not be done. Perhaps I got lucky, but here is what I did:

Was using a Sprint phone with Chicago suburbs area code. (And living in another state, I might add.) Moved to NYC. Bought a T-Mobile phone with a NY area code. A bit later, had T-Mobile port my Sprint number over.

Number portability is great! Because of cell phones, area codes are irrelevant, so I figured there was no reason to lose my old number which had served me for so long. (Plus I was getting random calls in Chinese, a language I don't know, meant for the former owner of the NY number.) I know zero, count 'em, zero people for whom area code has any relevance.

port painless

[MacAndrew]

our port was handled overnight (verizon --> t-mobile) but that may be plain old luck. interesting about the region-to-region defect.

here's a permanent fix -- how about a permanent number assigned to you for life, like a SSN. dial it, get your friend. yeah, i don't like that idea either, but it certainly is *portable*.

Re:the deal on porting

[XO]

In at least the case of Verizon, where they at one point had several different billing systems, it was mostly a billing system issue. Since Verizon and Cingular are made up of a whole crapload of smaller carriers that were once regional or local carriers, their billing systems couldn't handle the deal.

Sprint PCS requires an address in the area where you are getting the area code.. but you can have the billing address be something else.

That might actually be FCC restrictions, not allowing them to sell numbers for say Detroit to a customer in Florida, I don't know that one.

I don't have all the whys, but I do work in the business. :D

Cingular - ATT Wireless

[mc_barron]

Did this a few months ago, when they were two separate companies. Attempted to bring my Indy number with me to Chicago. No dice. Said that it was out of the area, even though i wanted to sign up for a local plan - I just wanted to keep my number. For what it's worth, customer service and technical ability was sub par on both sides of the equation. Waiting for the day when we all just have one number (perhaps a IPv6 domain, with subdomains for each of our telephones/computers/gizmos) - that way it's ours till death. Can't wait for the future.

Read the fine print

[toast0]

Most of the phone contracts I've read indicate that the carrier has the option of switching you to a local number if you remain outside your home service area for a specified period of time (I think i've seen 3 to 6 months). Since I'm not in the market for a time contracted phone, I only read the contract notes I see in the newspaper or in direct mail, so ymmv.

Number portability vs. LOCAL number portability

[Subgenius]

Perhaps the reason you can't move your number across the country is because (from my understanding) the system was designed to mimic landline LNP (LOCAL number portability). Numbers can generaly only be moved if there is a common rate center (not nessearily an area code). If most of the cell phone providers operate out of a common local central office or location, moving is a snap. IF, however, they are outside of the same local area, the LNP rules do not apply.

This applies to cell phones and landlines. I found this out the hard way when I tried to move our company's 100 DID numbers cross-town. Some companies (SBC, for instance) WILL create a new 'virtual rate center' (fancy name for a foreign exchange prefix for inbound only), but they will charge for it.

The distance exception to LNP has been a hot button for most of the cell companies (Check back issues of the Washington Digest from NECA (http://www.neca.org) (National Exchange Carrier Organization) for more info.

-arg

Re:What's so hard about number portability?

[Roman_(ajvvs)]

I think the ease of number porting in Australia is an example of the different telecommunication architectures developed in different countries.

Australia has a specific number range dedicated to mobile phones (04XXXX-XXXX). You can't tell where a person is by the number, but since the numbers were originally assigned in arbitrary segments to carriers, you could take a guess what carrier someone was with. Now that number porting has been introduced, a mobile number is exactly that. Not fixed to a location (since it never was) and not fixed to a carrier

Some Australian mobile carriers even allow you to pick your number, charging more for numbers with special digit combinations. but I digress.

The problem with US number portability is that the cell phone number isn't really "portable". It's a hack, because of the lack of foresight in assigning a different area code specifically for cell phones, regardless of carrier or location. To be honest, I don't know any other country that actually uses existing area codes for mobile phones, but then my knowledge of global mobile phone number designations is somewhat limited.

carrier-switching out-of-area-code-number-porting

[disappear]

Funny thing, I just went through this today [livejournal.com].

Now, my process isn't finished yet, but supposedly it'll be done in the next 24-36 hours.

My problem wasn't that T-Mobile couldn't port my number from Sprint, but that they wouldn't sell me a subsidized phone if they did. I could pay $200 for the "free" Nokia phone, and prices for other phones went up from there. Because of the way their commissions work, they only got commissions on local phone numbers.

So I bought a SIM chip from T-Mobile, ordered a phone from elsewhere, and we'll see what happens when the phone is delivered on Saturday.

Re:Just did it today

[elmegil]

I ported my old Sprint number (about 3 years old) to Verizon two weeks ago. I had the "it may take up to 48 hours" speech too, but it only took a couple. No problems. I didn't move state to state, but other than that possible complication my experience doesn't seem like a big lie.

I ported three phones in January

[jht]

I have three phones, all linked on a family plan. We keep two of them here in Massachusetts, and one is with my wife's parents in southern New jersey. But all three have local MA numbers. They were originally with T-Mobile, but I moved them to Cingular in late January. There were no major problems with the port - my phone and my wife's phone went over within a few hours, and the third phone ported a day later. For the day it took, dialing their number from a landline would fail, but dialing it from one of the already ported cells would work fine.

No problems since, either. And the GSM service up here is better with Cingular than it was with T-Mobile.

Re:If they had a seperate area code for cell phone

[riprjak]

...like they do in Australia ;)

Sure, we have only 19odd million people, but from the outset our mobiles ("cell's") have had separate area codes, originally the area codes indicated carrier, but now we have number portability, we just recognise a mobile number from its 04xx (or +614xx) prefix but cant infer carrier anymore.

just a pointless $0.02
err!
jak