Subject: [NEXTEL-1] : Numbers game: Wireless carriers, customers dialing into portability regulations

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Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2003 13:09:59 -0400

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/business.bg?articleid=439

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Numbers game: Wireless carriers, customers dialing into portability regulations
By Jay Fitzgerald
Monday, October 6, 2003
Cellphone companies are shifting into marketing high-gear as they scramble to please customers and slam competitors in preparation for ``P-Day.''

That's Nov. 24, when new rules take effect allowing consumers to keep their current cellphone numbers when they switch to new wireless carriers.

The so-called ``portability'' rule has been long debated and delayed - but this time it looks like it will happen, barring a last-minute regulatory or legal glitch, observers say.

As a result, wireless carriers, already fighting for market share in one of the most hotly competitive industries around, are launching ad blitzes, offering deals and bashing rivals inattempts to keep and attract customers on Nov. 24.

``It's incredibly competitive,'' said Dan Wilinsky, a spokesman for Sprint PCS, the wireless unit of Sprint Corp., which has nearly 19 million customers nationwide. ``Like the New England Patriots, you've got to protect your turf, go on the offensive - and that's what everyone (in the industry) is doing.''

For years, the desire or need of wireless customers to keep their phone numbers has been a great customer-retention tool for carriers.

But on or soon after Nov. 24, an estimated 9 million customers may change carriers - and take along with them their old cellphone numbers.

One of those looking at a switch is Daniel Santangelo, owner of Santangelo Landscaping in Newton. Now a Nextel Communications customer, Santangelo said he's thinking of switching to Verizon Wireless, partly because he's unhappy with Nextel's service, partly because he just wants to test the waters.

``I think it's going to be great,'' said Santangelo, whose company uses about 20 cellphones to keep track of its often far-flung employees at different sites.

``Portability is going to hold carriers to a higher standard,'' he said. ``I'm not saying I'm going to switch to Verizon. But at least we now have an alternative.''

Like others, Santangelo said he's resisted changing carriers because he doesn't want to confuse his regular customers who already know his current cellphone numbers.

Companies also incur costs when they change phone numbers, such as having to reprint business cards and other materials.

Santangelo said he's attracted to Verizon Wireless because it, like Nextel, has a walkie-talkie option, along with its cellphone service.

For Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest cellphone company with 35 million customers, that's music to its ears.

``We're ready,'' said Robert Stott, president of Verizon Wireless' New England region.

Verizon Wireless, Stott said, has hired and trained about 900 people to handle the so-called ``churn'' - or customers switching to and from carriers - once portability takes effect Nov. 24.

But Stott blasted his cellphone rivals, saying they're ``deliberately dragging their feet'' in preparing for portability, allegedly in the hope the churn will all flow in their direction, not Verizon's.

John Redman, a spokesman for Nextel, dismissed such criticism, saying Nextel is going to be ready for portability on Nov. 24, as required by the Federal Communications Commission. Redman said he's confident that Nextel's track record for good service - despite Newton customer Santangelo's disappointment - will mean Nextel will pick up new customers.

Next month's cellphone portability will apply to those customers in the top 100 metro markets across the country, as long as they stay within their general regional phone area. A person moving from Boston to, say, Dallas can't keep his or her old cellphone number.

The FCC eventually intends to extend mandatory portability to landline phones, but that move is years off, say experts. Phone companies are overwhelmed as it is with just the wireless portability rules, they add.

Adam Guy, an analyst at the Boston-based Yankee Group, believes carriers, by and large, will be technologically ready to handle cellphone portability on Nov. 24.

But he questioned if they're prepared for the millions of inquiries that people will make about when, where and how they can switch wireless carriers.

``I think it's going to be a little chaotic,'' he said.

Sprint's Wilinsky begs to differ.

``We're ready and able,'' he said.