Number switches delayed for many cell-phone users
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer
Clinton Abe walked into a T-Mobile cell-phone store on Nov. 25 wanting to switch his Kailua home phone number to his cell phone under a government-directive called "local number portability." Abe, a sales representative and Verizon customer, has been on hold for nearly nine weeks.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
That delay comes despite industry assurances that such a switch should only take about a week.
Clinton Abe is still waiting after asking T-Mobile in November to switch his Kailua home number to his cell phone.
"They (T-Mobile) won't give me an estimate" of when the number will get switched, Abe said. "They won't even give me an explanation of what the problem is.
"It's very frustrating."
Abe isn't the only cell-phone user getting his numbers pushed. As of Jan. 12 more than 1 million cell-phone numbers had been switched since local number portability took effect Nov. 24. While many of these conversions occurred with few glitches, some consumers are encountering problems. Through Dec. 24, the FCC handled 2,394 consumer complaints, mostly over delays in moving numbers between wireless carriers.
Telephone companies acknowledge the process hasn't been trouble-free.
AT&T 1,221 Source: The Federal Communications Commission
"There continue to be glitches in the porting process system-wide, but it's getting better every hour of every day," said Georgia Taylor, spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless. "For the most part it's gotten a lot smoother within our company."
Carrier complaints
The FCC received 2,394 complaints against various phone companies as of Dec. 24. The breakdown by company:
Company
Sprint PCS
Verizon Wireless
Cingular Wireless
T-Mobile
Nextel Comm. Complaints
518
406
359
256
154
Note: Many complaints mention more than one carrier resulting in a greater combined number of carrier complaints than total number of complaints.
Officials with Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile USA Inc., which received 256 complaints, did not respond to questions regarding Abe's situation.
According to the Public Utilities Commission and the state consumer protector, few Hawai'i consumers have lodged complaints over delays. However, on the West Coast, a rash of complaints drove the California Public Utilities Commission to threaten to intervene on behalf of consumers to enforce the FCC rule.
That consumers are encountering problems at all is somewhat disconcerting given that phone companies had several years to prepare for local number portability, said Lauren Patrich, an FCC spokeswoman.
Through Dec. 24 more than half of the complaints to the FCC since the rule went into effect mentioned AT&T Wireless, which drove the FCC to ask the carrier for an explanation. AT&T blamed a software problem for the delays encountered by consumers.
However, wireless companies aren't the only ones to blame for delays, particularly when it comes to switching a home phone number to a wireless phone, Patrich said. Traditional wire-line phone companies reluctantly agreed to provide the service after losing a court challenge, she said.
"I'm inclined to think it's the wire-line company that doesn't have its act together," Patrich said. "I think they really thought that they would get out of doing this."
Despite continued problems, the FCC and Verizon agreed that the process of porting phone numbers is going smoother. They said the nine-week delay experienced by Abe is unusual. At Verizon the typical time it takes to move a home number to a wireless phone is four to 10 days, the company said.
Less than 5 percent of number switches occur between home and wireless phones, Verizon said.
"Keep in mind we're only 50 percent of the process," Taylor said. "From a technical standpoint, there are more challenges and it does take longer, and we try to set our customers' expectations accordingly."
Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.
