CELLULAR PHONES Number portability grows, but a rush isn't expected

Fewer people than predicted have moved their cell-phone numbers.
ORLANDO SENTINEL
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Cellular phone companies prepared for a deluge of defections last fall as more than 100 million of their customers gained the right to keep their numbers when they switched carriers.
Predictions that a million subscribers would bolt in the first 24 hours had the wireless industry in a dither.
Yet the onslaught never came.
Initially, the federal requirement applied to the nation's 100 most populous areas. Today, it expands to the rest of the country.
Even as an additional 70 million people become eligible to transport their numbers, telecommunications experts don't expect a number-switching frenzy. About a quarter of the nation's 163 million cell phone-customers switch carriers annually, and most seem to have little interest in keeping their numbers.
The Federal Communications Commission says 3.3 million phone numbers have moved from one wireless company to another since the option became available Nov. 24. And despite predictions that many people would transfer their numbers from traditional wired lines to cell phones, just 229,000 have done so.
"We would have expected about 10 million people to have ported their numbers so far, so what we're seeing is way below expectations," said Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with The Yankee Group in Boston. "It's due to a combination of people not really caring about their phone numbers and people not wanting to go through the hassle of porting."
Customer complaints
In the first weeks after the launch of number portability, customers were frothing with complaints. Entner said wireless carriers have become more adept at moving numbers around, but the perception that switching is difficult lingers.
Charles Golvin, who follows the wireless industry for Forrester Research, said customers weren't as irritated with their current service as was once thought.
Cell-phone companies said they don't anticipate problems as the remainder of their customers gain the right to move their numbers elsewhere.
"We got the bugs out of the system a long time ago," said Chuck Hamby, Florida spokesman for Verizon Wireless.
Nevertheless, wireless companies are warning customers that porting could take more time as millions of additional customers gain the option to move numbers from carrier to carrier. And they remind would-be number porters to remember that even if they can keep their number, they'll probably need a new phone when they switch carriers.