WLNP Scorecard: One Week Later, Winners And Losers
A week after WLNP attached mobile phone numbers to people instead of telcos, and the LNP scorecard shows Nextel and Verizon gained customers, while Cingular and ATTWS were lost some customers. Of the other nationals, Sprint PCS and T-Mobile were cited as holding their ground. ATTWS' net LNP losses were linked to ongoing problems in provisioning new customers. We're seeing growing evidence of Mike's earlier observation that porting has been fraught with delays and glitches. An RBC telecom analyst said that of 30 porting requests he is tracking, only 12 have been successful - that's an awful ratio. I repeat my advice of early November: don't rush your carrier change, let the bugs work out of the system first. Wait until January unless you're working on a Christmas present. For anyone planning to port their number because of poor service from their existing carrier: to do so is an act of pure masochism. You will undoubtedly undergo the very torture you so despise as you run the gauntlet of call-center confusion and un-trained store staff. And when you succeed at porting to your new carrier, you will have learned that their customer service is not unlike your previous carrier's.
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