The Hidden Costs of Switching Cell Service
Nov. 14 -- In this week's Cybershake, we look at how new federal rules will make it easier — but not necessarily cheaper — for consumers to switch cell phone service providers. Plus, we get a glimpse at a cell phone that could entice couch potatoes to become more mobile.
Mobile Madness
In the beginning, changing your cell phone service also meant losing the number. But soon, you can take it with you.
The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that beginning Nov. 24, new "number portability" rules must be implemented by wireless service providers in the top 100 metropolitan areas in the United States.
Essentially, the new FCC rules allow consumers to "own" their phone numbers. Customers will be able to transfer the number from their wired home phone to a cell phone or the mobile phone number issued by one wireless carrier to another mobile service provider.
Kathleen Dunleavy, spokeswoman with Sprint Communications, says the new rules are designed to give consumers more choice.
"They can switch if they're dissatisfied with their wireless carrier for one reason or another," says Dunleavy.
That certainly beats having to tell all your friends and associates to update their address books and phone lists whenever you switch mobile service providers. And it means corporate customers won't have to buy new business cards if the company switches services.
But while the new rules should make it easier for consumers to switch services on a whim, it won't be without some pains.
"A consumer would want to check if the [cellular] contract that they're currently in has an early termination fee," says Dunleavy. If you try and switch providers before your contract expires, it could cost you $175 or so.
And even if mobile subscribers aren't under contract, they will be hit with the cost of buying new cell phones.
"They put special software so that [mobile] phones can only work for a particular carrier," Dunleavy says. That may change in the future, but for now: "They'll have to buy a new phone."
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