The Hidden Costs of Switching Cell Service

Nov. 14, 2003 -- 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."

In some cases, that can be desirable.

"Now you can get the new fancy camera phone with the color screen and the fancy ringers," says Dunleavy. "But it is something to think about because it is an additional cost."

And, don't expect the switchover to be quick and seamless. All mobile carriers are still working out the bugs in their respective cell phone networks to handle the new FCC mandates.

"Under ideal circumstances, it should take about two and a half hours from the time you say 'I'd like to change,' until the time your number's working with a new carrier," says Mark Siegel, a spokesman with AT&T Wireless. "In some cases though, if there are complexities involved, it could even take days."

Dunleavy of Sprint agrees.

"It's not up to one of the telecom carriers to implement it," says Dunleavy. "It's up to all of them and so there's going to be a shakeout period."

The new number portability rules won't apply to every area of the United States until March 24.

— Larry Jacobs, ABCNEWS

A Talk Show of a Different Sort

Right now, the hottest rage in mobile communications is cell phones with built-in digital camera features. But electronics giant, Samsung, is already prepared to take mobile phones to the next level: the TV phone.

Pete Scarzinsky, senior vice president of Samsung Telecommunications, says the company has produced a cell phone with built-in television capabilities.

"[It is] a fully featured phone with a browser as well so you can surf the Internet," says Scarzinsky. But, it also contains the "smallest TV tuner done by Samsung in the world."

The TV tuner picks up local stations broadcasted over the airwave, just like a regular portable TV. But with built-in mobile communications technology, users will be able to do some neat tricks.

"If you're watching your favorite show and it happens to be a great scene that you love, you can actually take an image of the show itself," says Scarzinsky. "You can [then] put a little message to your friend and send it off via [short message service] to somebody else's phone or to a computer."

Scarzinsky wouldn't disclose how much the TV phone would cost. But he did say the mobile entertainment and communications hybrids should become available next year.

— Larry Jacobs, ABCNEWS

Cybershake is produced for ABCNEWS Radio by Andrea J. Smith.