Each day it seems, EmbarqT could be the phone companies salvation, once deployed.
Plan for portable numbers faces unreasonable static
Thu Nov 13, 8:00 AM ET Add Op/Ed - USATODAY.com to My Yahoo!
Anyone who has been to a college campus lately has seen the future. Phones that actually plug into walls are as passé as ABBA records and cartridge typewriters. Today's students have disentangled themselves from land lines and are attached - surgically it seems at times - to their cell phones.
This brave new wireless (news - web sites) world is coming to more traditional communities as well. Some 5 million Americans have unplugged their local phone companies, and consumer surveys have shown millions more would do so if they could transfer their numbers to cell phone accounts. For these wireless wannabes, Monday's decision by the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) (FCC (news - web sites)) to force phone companies to provide such "number portability" is a positive development.
It could be good news for phone companies, too - if they would join the FCC and their customers in embracing the future. Instead, several are threatening lawsuits to prevent the rule from taking effect Nov. 24.
By fighting the change, many companies not only hurt consumers, they also jeopardize the stakes they have in wireless communication. Trying to keep customers trapped in a less-competitive, but shrinking, land-line market is a shortsighted strategy.
The wireless industry has grown almost 200-fold during the past 18 years and is continuing to expand at a phenomenal rate. Some industry analysts estimate the number of subscribers will double again in the next five years. Conventional telephone service, by contrast, is declining, as consumers replace lines with cell phones and high-speed cable connections.
All four "Baby Bell" companies - Verizon, Qwest, BellSouth and SBC - have at least some presence in the wireless market, which gives them a chance to benefit from the FCC rule. With their established customer bases, expertise and financial clout, these companies have the resources to adapt to number portability and remain competitive in the phone market.
The advantages of seeing the rule change as a blessing and not a bane include:
•Grateful customers An estimated 19 million households are expected to drop their land-line service in the next few years as a generation of wireless-dependent students becomes a larger portion of the population, according to the Management Network Group, a consulting firm. Companies could win over consumers by helping them make the transition to cell phones.
•Package deals Local phone companies are uniquely positioned to capture wireless customers by combining land-line and cell phone service in one account, according to a study by the Yankee Group, a Boston-based consulting firm.
Apart from Verizon, which supports the rule, local Bells complain that the FCC is not playing fairly. They cite the fact that the portability rule works only one way; wireless firms would not be required to switch cell phone numbers back to land-line phones.
The FCC concedes technical problems stand in the way of such two-way number portability. But as a practical matter, demand for switching a wireless number to a land-line phone is virtually non-existent. By fighting an inevitable migration to wireless, the Baby Bells risk angering customers already determined to cut their cords.
AI
