Verizon Backs Number Portability
Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-telephone operator, now backs a federal rule to allow wireless customers to keep their phone numbers when changing providers.
The carrier won’t charge customers fees to cover costs of implementing the new regulation, which takes effect Nov. 24, Chief Executive Dennis Strigl said Tuesday.
Strigl’s announcement ends what had been a united industry front against number portability. Strigl leaned on other carriers also to stop fighting the rule, which some have argued would cost the industry $1 billion initially and $500 million a year after that.
Wireless carriers have staged regulatory challenges to the rule, arguing it will unnecessarily increase competition.
“This is one part resignation and one part opportunity,” Paul Glenchur, a telecommunications analyst at Schwab Capital Markets in Washington, said of Verizon Wireless’ announcement. “The marketing war has begun, and other carriers may have little choice but to engage.”
Verizon Wireless, with 33.3 million subscribers, may gain customers from rivals under portability because it has a better network, Glenchur said.
Allowing customers to keep their phone numbers when leaving or joining Verizon Wireless will cost the firm 10 cents to 15 cents per current subscriber each month, or $60 million a year, Strigl estimated. Verizon hasn’t decided how to recoup the ongoing costs, he said.
“Let’s as an industry stop moaning and groaning,” Strigl said at the Yankee Group’s Wireless Leadership Summit in New York. “Our government has spoken. Our customers tell us they want it. Let’s clear the decks and get it done.”
In response, rivals said the Federal Communications Commission still must resolve questions about number portability. Len Lauer, president of Sprint Corp.’s wireless unit, the No. 4 U.S. carrier, said in a statement that “it’s not the place of any one carrier to dictate the industry ground rules for the process.”
The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Assn., a wireless-industry group, last week filed a new request with the FCC to rescind the rule.
