Government prepares to allow transfer of phone numbers

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators are letting people keep their cell phone numbers when they switch wireless companies after Nov. 24 and probably will do the same for home phone customers opting for wireless-only service.

The government is responding to pleas by customers reluctant to make a change because doing so has meant the loss of phone numbers known by friends, relatives and business associates.

But people moving from one city to another -- Los Angeles to New York, for example -- cannot keep the same local number.

Also, industry officials say customers who want to switch cell carriers probably will have to buy new cell phones because wireless companies use different technology; some companies are offering free phones to get customers to switch.

Cell phone users who have long-term contracts will have to pay early termination fees if they want to switch before their agreement expires.

With the upcoming deadline, companies are offering special incentives to lock in customers.

"This is potentially very significant to the wireless industry," Verizon Wireless spokesman Howard Waterman said. "Wireless carriers will have to compete even more fiercely in a very competitive environment."

Metropolitan areas first

For consumers switching cell phone companies, the new regulations from the Federal Communications Commission will first cover customers in the 100 most populous metropolitan areas, who account for about 60 percent of the nation's cell phone users. By May 24, the rules will apply to everyone else.

Consumer groups like the change.

"When we reduce the switching costs of going from one carrier to another, you're making the market more competitive," said Chris Murray, legislative counsel for Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine.

"There's both the economic cost of a new phone number -- having to print new business cards, having to potentially contact everyone who might have your phone number -- and massive inconvenience."

The wireless industry is ready for the change.

Consumers who want to switch companies could have new service as quickly as 2 1/2 hours after the new carrier has contacted the old provider.

The switch will take longer if more than one line is involved. It should take a few days to handle requests from customers wishing to switch landline numbers to cell phones. During the busy Christmas holiday season, customers may have to wait longer for the transfers.

A study by the Management Network Group, an Overland Park, Kan.-based communications consulting firm, found that about 18 million of the cell industry's 152 million customers will change providers in the first year as a result of the new rules.

Abigail McConnell, 30, a college fund-raiser from Chapel Hill, N.C., likes the changes.

"Someone can keep the same number for life," she said. "People are becoming more mobile and global."

Wireless companies have stepped up their advertising and are offering special rates or free phones to entice customers to sign up before Nov. 24, according to Jeff Maszel, research director for the Management Network Group.

"One of the key factors to keeping customers in the early phases is the percent of customers under contract," Maszel said.

Regulators are writing the final chapter of the regulations: how to switch a number from a home phone to a cell phone. An FCC announcement could come any day.

"Everything we're hearing is consumers really want it," Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said. "We're going to head in that direction."

A major problem is that local areas for landline phones are much narrower than cell phone areas. The first three digits after the area code in a traditional home phone number identifies a geographic area known as a "rate center." A move of only a few blocks may require a new landline phone number because the new home is in a different rate center, while a cell phone number remains the same.

If the wireless company has numbers within the rate center, then switching is no problem. The conventional phone companies worry that the new regulations might require them to transfer numbers outside the rate center, which they say they cannot readily do with current technology.

"The technical problem is not one we can wave a wand over by the November 24 deadline," BellSouth Corp. spokesman Bill McCloskey said. "It can be fixed, but it can't be fixed in two weeks."