Number portability is here!

If you think those acroynyms/jargon were bad try being the one actually implementing portabilty....I was in charge of implementing number portabilty at a small CLEC....It was literally the toughest thing that I've ever tried to accomplish in the communications industry. I lieterally had to educate and train so maany people on different levels of the company to work together just to get one number cut.

 

Tell me about it ....I am not directly involved with telecommunications, but in my environment (LAN/WAN) we have a lot of those too.

 

ENUM will solve all of our problems (said wishfully):

http://www.enum.org/

 

Okay I made it through to the second paragraph on their website before my brain imploded...

 

Is that page supposed to be a joke? Can someone at least translate the first paragraph of the home page into English for me?

I worked for a small firm as a web designer for a number of years and I always complained that the text they gave me to publish was nothing but smoke and mirrors. A quick glance at ENUM shows this is the situation there.

 

I like it as well. It's nice knowing, oh 382 thats Verizon, 423 thats Crapular. I dunno why, it just is. But, otherwise I think it will be a good thing eventually. At home we switch LD a lot. To whoever is the cheapest, since we only use it about 1 time a month, so if that company starts charging for NOT using it (ATT, COUGH COUGH) we move on, have switched 3 times. It will be good in the long run for cell phone users.

 

I thought 611 was the UNIVERSAL customer care number, and wutever network you were currently on, it would take you to that provider??? Like if I was using my Sprint phone and Roaming on the Verizon network, if I dialed 611 I would most likely end up with Verizon customer care. I didnt think it was a number thing.

 

Not always.

If the carrier has set up home number routing, like US Cell, AT&T customers on USC dialing 611 get AT&T.

Cingular doesn't even support 611 for AT&T customers, they send it to an error message. They are cheap and don't want to foot the airtime or LD costs.

611 is not a standard by any means, it is just something that McCaw Cellular first used, and all the NACN members then adopted. Now that the NACN doesn't exist, carriers do what they want.

 

I see....but when you say 611 people automatically asociate it with calling customer service so in a way it is like a standard although unofficial.

 

611 is a de facto standard, like 711 for the Relay Centre and (here, anyway) 311 for non-emergency police.

 

Bobolito;

Will wonders never cease? You got me by the short and curlies! I would have thought you would be all against number porting!

Can you imagine the churn a company like Crapular will experience? I mean they already experience some of the highest levels of churn in the industry now, can you imagine throwing number porting into the mix? I wouldn't be suprised to see thier churn numbers double-possibly even higher. Of course other carriers will experience some uptick in churn as well. We are about to see a wireless industry referendum if you will.

It will be really interesting to see who gets socked with the highest levels of churn and see where most of those folks end up at. I know I have had the same # with Crapular for years, makes you think twice about dropping a line. I have the same landline number now for about twenty years, wouldn't part with it for nothing. When I built my house four years ago, thought I could put my residential line on "suspend" until the house was done, 5-7 months down the pike. Ameritech quashed that notion, they said the only way to retain the number was to purchase land line voicemail for that entire time period, otherwise my number would be relenquished.

Like some of the other posters said, things are going to get really, really interesting in the wireless industry once this "porting" takes effect. This could really affect some carriers financially and it will really get them to re-think retention policies.

 

Well, Zacko, number portability benefits me because I am a customer, not a Cingular fanatic as some others . If it doesn't benefit Cingular, I am sorry for them, but it will not affect me negatively.