As the world churns

It should come to the surprise of no one that, shortly after a federal appeals court upheld the FCC's November deadline for local number portability, Leap Wireless issued a press release that praised the decision. In the words of Leap Chairman and CEO Harvey White, the carrier is "pleased that the court rejected the efforts of many large carriers to eliminate wireless number portability."

Not being among the "large carriers" itself, Leap and its smaller brethren have taken a different perspective on LNP than, say, Verizon Wireless . That's because the smaller carriers stand to gain the most when the number portability floodgates are finally opened.

Sure, you've already been told how high churn rates will skyrocket once customers are able to take their numbers with them when they switch carriers. And if you're one of the carriers that stand to lose some of those customers, you're probably not happy about it.

But believe it or not, LNP is a good thing. To date, the wireless industry has lacked one of the defining characteristics of wireline service: the ability to port a number from one carrier to another. The long-awaited rollout of number portability promises to not only give smaller competitive carriers a fair shake in the market, but also hold all carriers--large and small--to a higher level of accountability. No longer will a carrier be able to take its customers for granted.

Yes, the actual implementation of LNP will be a logistical pain for carriers--not to mention a costly one (as much as $1 billion in the first year alone). And the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association is justified in continually harassing the FCC to outline specific rules for achieving LNP to avoid "a number portability train wreck."

But in focusing on logistics, it's easy to forget the big picture: that LNP promises not only to empower consumers, but help create a truly competitive wireless industry. Just as you can't easily blame the large carriers for wanting to hang on to their customers, you can hardly blame the smaller ones for wanting a level playing field.

E-mail me at mhanley@primediabusiness.com.