Keeping Number Can Mean Cell Phone Hell

Dec. 19, 2003 -- In November, a new rule from the Federal Communications Commission went into effect — an Emancipation Proclamation for the cell phone user.

Watch the full report tonight on 20/20.

Called telephone portability or "porting," the rule lets cell phone users in the country's 100 largest metropolitan areas to keep their own cell phone numbers — no matter who provides the service.

"Consumers are getting the benefit of number portability. They're able to keep their investment in their numbers, while benefiting from lower prices and better competition," said John Muleta, head of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, which mandated that cell phone companies offer number portability.

Many cell users, particularly those who rely heavily on their mobile phones for business, were thrilled by the news. With the promise that porting would be painless and take only a few hours from the time the request is made of the old carrier to the new, millions of customers were expected to divorce their old wireless provider to find better deals or service.

But it hasn't exactly worked out the way the industry and government regulators predicted. Since the rule took effect Nov. 24, there have been huge problems.

Customers like Richard Arenaro and John Shkolnick found the switch less than simple, and it took much longer than a few hours.

Shkolnick's switch-over, from Sprint to Verizon, took eight days. "It finally got done, but only because I kept calling them every day, multiple times," he said. "I was just incredibly frustrated."

Arenaro, who tried to switch to AT&T Wireless, told ABCNEWS he was promised that his number would be ported within 24 hours. Like Shkolnick, Arenaro found himself in a holding pattern.

At one point, Arenaro said, the cell phone company did seem to take pity on him. It offered to let him speak with a "a compassion agent." To his chagrin, he learned the agent couldn't help sort out the problem, but would simply listen to his story and sympathize with him.

After several days of long phone calls, he gave up, deciding to stay with his old carrier, even though AT&T has better coverage where he uses his phone.

Amy and Henry Cernitz described their porting process as torture. They could have used a compassion agent to commiserate over what they say happened when they tried to leave AT&T for Verizon. "They said it would take two and a half hours," Henry Cernitz said. "I had no illusion that it would take two and half hours."

It's a good thing he went in with a realistic attitude. It took 11 days for his portability request to go through.

The Cernitzes say what upset them most was that they kept being told different stories. They were told they filled out the form incorrectly. They were told AT&T was not ready to release their number. They were also told AT&T was waiting to the end of their billing cycle to let the number go. Another story was that AT&T's computers were down, and then they were told that AT&T was now attempting to do the transfers by hand.

‘Mind-Blowing’ Problems

Because of these sorts of hassles, just a few hundred thousand consumers, not the anticipated millions, have tried to make the most of the new FCC rule.

"The problems in the beginning were mind-blowing," said, Roger Entner, an analyst with The Yankee Group, a technology research and consulting firm. Entner described the porting initiative as "the least tested, large-scale IT implementation in history. It's everything we feared Y2K would be."

In the first few weeks, Entner said, as many as 50,000 people a day tried to get ported and failed.

After the first two weeks, more than half of the 743 consumer complaints that came into the FCC were about AT&T Wireless, which uses a different subcontractor to port cell phone numbers from all the other major carriers.

AT&T declined to be interviewed for this story, but wrote ABCNEWS a letter, stating: "Like other companies, AT&T Wireless has encountered some technical and other challenges. … It is no surprise that all of us in the industry encountered bumps in the road in the early weeks of this unprecedented journey."

Steve Largent, a former NFL star and congressman who now heads the wireless industry trade organization CTIA, says the process has gone much more smoothly than expected.

"We have managed to meet the government order and do it in a way that I think reflects positively on this high-tech industry," Largent said.

But Entner said he'd give the industry a failing grade. "The industry has not done what it promised to do and now they are in catch-up mode," he said.

Entner said the industry should have begun preparing for portability a year ago to make the process go smoothly. He says the cell phone industry did start early in one area. He says the industry began collecting fees for portability even before they offered the service, and you pay whether you port or not. Entner estimated that some $500 million has been collected by carriers for the introduction of number portability.

Richard Arenaro, who never completed his switch to AT&T, still received a bill for $9 from them for their agents' efforts to help him. The Cernitzes also got a bill from AT&T after they canceled their service. AT&T billed them for an entire month of service since their portability request was completed after the first day of their billing cycle — even though they attempted to cancel their service before the new billing cycle began.

Largent offered an apology to customers like the Cernitzes, and said, "I guarantee you this: Their experiences are going to get better and better and better."

For now, the Cernitzes, Arenaro and Shkolnick are skeptical.