Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Number portability will be a Boom for-"Cellphone Unlocking" sites.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 21:51:21 -0400

Number portability will be a Boom for- "Cellphone Unlocking" sites.

At least this writer recognizes the challenges that customers face when porting
over...

As previously discussed here cellphone carriers routinely "Lock-Out" key
programming parameters of all their cellphones. This is done to prevent the phone
from being reprogrammed and used on other carrier's networks.

The buzz on the underground and above ground cellphone websites is that many are
looking to capitalize on LNP. The small amount of subs that will port ( i.e. 10% =
approx. 1.3 M)  will undoubtedly over run the small numbers of "Unlockers".
The number while small to carriers it is significant to the Unlockers. This will
breed the "Get Rich Quick" mentality and create many more problems as users try to
reprogram their phones after they are unlocked.. So if you are going to port watch
out.

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Posted on Tue, Jul. 22, 2003

Cell-phone changes neither cheap nor easy
By JUBE SHIVER JR.
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON - Come November, mobile-phone customers will be
able to take their numbers with them when they switch carriers.
But as Erin Cocoran knows, it won't necessarily be cheap or easy.

Fed up with poor reception in her Washington apartment, the
30-year-old lawyer relished the thought of booting her current
carrier and getting a new one. Then she tallied up the costs and
hassles.

''I'm going to have to buy a new phone,'' Cocoran said. ''I'll have to
manually enter all my numbers into the new phone. And I will have
to pay a cancellation fee because I have a two-year contract.''

Consumer advocates rejoiced last month when the U.S. Court of
Appeals upheld the Federal Communications Commission's
so-called number portability rule, allowing customers to transfer
their 10-digit phone numbers when they change wireless carriers.
But the rule, which takes effect Nov. 24, might not free customers
held hostage by their phone numbers to seek out better service in
the $77 billion wireless market. Hefty contract cancellation fees
and incompatible equipment will continue to pose significant
obstacles to jumping ship because wireless service providers,
already battling high defection rates, have little incentive to make
it easier for customers to leave.

''There will be surprises for consumers,'' said Jane Zweig, chief
executive of Shosteck Group, a Wheaton, Md., telecommunications
consulting company.

An estimated 50 million of the nation's more than 141 million
cell-phone subscribers switch carriers each year in a costly
migration known in the industry as ''churn.'' A Harris Interactive poll
last year found that an additional 17 percent of cell-phone users
would switch carriers for a one-time fee of $50 if they could keep
their phone number.

The price of change probably will be far higher than $50, however.

''I think carriers may double their'' current $150 to $200 early
termination fee to discourage subscribers from leaving, said Roger
Entner, a wireless analyst for Yankee Group research company in
Boston. Having spent an estimated $1 billion to overhaul their
networks to offer number portability, carriers are loath to let
subscribers easily abscond, Entner said.

''It cost us $350 to $370 to acquire a customer,'' said Sprint PCS
President Len Lauer. If the customer quits Sprint in less than a
year, ''it costs us money.''

Lauer wouldn't say whether Sprint plans to increase its
cancellation fee. But he said the number portability rule wouldn't
make the company back off from enforcing contracts.

The tough talk doesn't deter some consumers. Cocoran says she
plans to dump her current carrier in November, even though she
faces a cancellation fee of more than $100. ''It will save me money
in the long run to switch to a company with better coverage in my
apartment,'' where she will be able to make long-distance calls on
her cell phone and pay less than she would on her land line, she
said.

Unlike in Europe and Asia, where uniform wireless standards make
choosing cell-phone service relatively simple, the U.S. market is
divided among three major wireless transmission standards.
Carriers exploit these differences -- and couple them with
long-term service contracts with hefty termination fees -- to bolster
customer loyalty.

For example, Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS use a digital
technology called code-division multiple access to transmit phone
calls. As a result, the two carriers' phones can't be used on
networks run by AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Cingular Wireless and
T-Mobile USA Inc., which use the competing GSM standard or global
system for mobile communications. They also cannot be used with
Nextel Communications Inc., which uses a third transmission
standard.

Consumers can't even switch among carriers using similar
technologies. Phone equipment used by Verizon and Sprint is
incompatible. And carriers offering GSM technology employ
software to ''lock'' the subscriber's telephone handset to their
network.

That has created a cottage industry of entrepreneurs such as
Lincoln Han of San Diego. He operates a Web site that does brisk
business unlocking GSM phones.

''For people who just want to switch providers or to use their GSM
phone when traveling abroad, this is the only option,'' Han said.
''Without unlocking the phone first, consumers won't be able to
make the switch to another GSM network without throwing away a
perfectly usable phone.''

Providers such as AT&T Wireless and Nextel argue that, with six
major national carriers, the industry is already plenty competitive
and that money spent on number portability would be better used
to improve customer service and network coverage.

The wireless industry sued to stop the number portability rule but
lost the case. Now the industry is looking for ways to make the
rule more palatable: It's pressuring the FCC to amend the rule to
discourage consumers from breaking service contracts.

''When you ordered that a wireless carrier may not require a
consumer to live up to his/her contractual obligation, you put the
federal government on the side of marketplace malfeasance,''
Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications &
Internet Association, wrote in a July 11 letter to the FCC. ''I cannot
walk away from my new car lease just because I see a snappier
new model at another dealership. Why should I be encouraged by
federal rules to walk away from the commitment I made when I
signed a contract for wireless service?''

In an interview, FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief
John B. Muleta urged the industry to let the marketplace sort out
the terms of service agreements, which he said are currently ''not
presented very accurately'' to consumers.

''Our thinking process on this is that those decisions on contract
terms are all things consumers can make choices about,'' Muleta
said. ''It might be worth it for you to pay $100 and terminate the
service if it is not meeting your expectations.''

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/6357053.htm

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From: "Bulldog" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 17:38:26 -0000

What's an unlocking site?

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 17:36:09 -0400

Bulldog wrote:

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