Branson calls out Ottawa
Industry dragging its feet in implementation of phone number portability, Virgin Mobile founder charges
Virgin Mobile founder Richard Branson yesterday urged Ottawa to force the nation’s wireless carriers to quickly implement phone number portability — rather than wait to 2008 as the industry suggests.
“It will not happen any quicker if the government does not make [wireless number portability] happen,” Mr. Branson told reporters on a conference call yesterday. “It is everywhere else in the world, why shouldn’t Canada have it also?
“ The Canadian industry is dragging their feet for as long as they can.”
Wireless number portability, which lets people bring their phone numbers when moving from one carrier to another, is critical to wireless competition, industry watchers say.
It’s available in almost every industrialized nation, including the U. S., said telecom consultant Eamon Hoey.
The federal government urged the industry to “move expeditiously” on the matter in February when the budget was released.
But the carriers – Rogers Wireless Inc., Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility — say they can’t implement full number portability until 2008 for technical reasons.
Mr. Branson called that bunk.
“ The technology exists to implement this number portability extremely quickly,” he said. “Our research shows that if government makes this a priority, [the industry] can make this happen in matter of months.”
Mr. Branson said he is going to write a letter in support of number portability to Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Promoting number portability is in Mr. Branson’s best interest. Virgin Mobile, which launched service in February, is competing aggressively with Bell, Rogers and Telus for customers. Clearly it would be an advantage for Virgin if they could tell potential customers they can also hold on to their old phone numbers.
The Solutions Research Group, a Torontomarket research firm, released a study in March that showed 80% of wireless users support number portability. The survey undercut earlier claims by the major carriers there is little demand for the service. The study also showed 10% of wireless subscribers will switch to a new carrier within a year when wireless number portability is introduced and another 25% would consider switching based on market conditions and competitive offers.
Charles Dalfen, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission chairman, which regulates the telecom industry, said the wireless sector’s timeline may not suffice.
“We would prefer the industry come to a time period [for implementation] that works for everybody as soon as possible.”
He said a decision on number portability will be released by year-end.
“ This is normal procedure. We want to hear what others have to say before we make our decision.”
The CRTC will decide how number portability should be implemented, what numbers can be ported among other issues.