CELL PHONES Upcoming changes intensify rivalry between services

Expect providers to cut prices and offer more features.
By JOHN MORAN
HARTFORD COURANT
Itching to dump your cell-phone provider? Your best opportunity yet is coming in November.
That's when the federal government will require cell providers to offer "number portability." It means you'll get to keep your phone number when you switch to a new provider.
Consumers should be thrilled, because having to notify friends, relatives and business contacts of a new number has been the biggest barrier to switching providers. Many consumers stick with a provider they don't like rather than face that hassle.
Although number portability is a boon to consumers, it could also prove a major competitive challenge to cell companies, who face a new round of musical chairs in the wireless world.
Their challenge is to hold on to the cell-phone customers they have while luring new ones into the fold. The result could be a new wave of advertising, price cuts and service enhancements.
We may be seeing some early signs of that competition already.
Pushing buttons
Nextel Communications and Verizon Wireless, for example, are battling over their respective walkie-talkie features, also known as the "push to talk" service. Other wireless companies are readying their own walkie-talkie features so that they, too, can compete for customers who want that service.
Consumers are also likely to be wooed with price cuts and perhaps even giveaways of wireless handsets. The clunky old monochrome phone that you may be using has given way to a new generation of sleek, color-screened models.