On March 14, phone-number portability comes to Canada
Jim Jamieson
Province
Wireless Wave’s Alfred Wan expects a lot of customers to consider their options. Photograph by : Nick Procaylo, The Province
Alfred Wan expects to see a brisk up-tick in his business on March 14.
The manager of the Wireless Wave outlet at Pacific Centre Mall in Vancouver knows that’s the first day mobile-phone customers can take their numbers with them when they ditch their carriers.
That means not having to tell your customers — or buddies — what your new number is.
“People want the best deal and the best coverage, but they want to keep their number,” Wan said.
“A lot of consumers out there are waiting for this.”
So-called wireless-number portability, or WNP, allows consumers to change service providers within the same local-calling area and keep their existing phone number.
WNP also lets consumers move a number from a wireline phone to a wireless phone, and vice versa.
Canada will be the second country in the world, after the U.S., which made the move in 2003, to offer complete wireless-to-wireless, wireless-to-wireline and wireline-to-wireless portability.
While there are a number of hurdles for those who might wish to change carriers — contract cancellation penalties and the need to buy a new handset are obvious ones — having to give a new phone number to friends and business contacts is one of the most daunting.
“Consumers are going to win in a lot of ways because carriers are going to have to work harder to earn their trust,” said Andrew Black, CEO of Virgin Mobile Canada. “People have always been held back from switching by the fact they couldn’t keep their numbers with them.” As a small but aggressive player in the prepaid market — which does not require contracts — Virgin Mobile feels it is in a position to gain a surge of new customers, Black said.
Chris Langdon, Telus vice-president of network services, said his company is well-positioned to hold onto customers.
Telus’s wireless division had the industry’s lowest customer churn rate — the number of customers who leave a supplier in a given period — of 1.33 per cent last year, Langdon said.
A new wave of marketing campaigns by the carriers — especially Telus, Bell Canada and Rogers Communications — is expected nearer WNP Day but all are coy about their strategies.
Analysts don’t expect a tidal wave of change on March 14. Movement is expected to be gradual, as contracts expire, led by business users who spend more than $100 monthly — a small part of the market.
Tony Olvet, a vice-president at IDC Canada, said the impact of WNP will likely be more significant on the business side, where a phone number is linked to potential sales or support.
The Canadian wireless industry association has a comprehensive website at www.wirelessnumberportability.ca.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
