Giving thanks for portability

The biggest surprise to me about wireless number portability this week has not so much been the number of people who have switched since the option became available on Monday (numbers that, if available at all, are really mostly guesses anyway). I’m surprised instead by the sheer number of consumers who were actually aware of the carrier deadline. That alone says volumes about not only the state of wireless service (and customer service), but also about how astute so many consumers are about seemingly esoteric information about the telecom industry.

Granted, the part of number portability that consumers care about involves them alone—in other words, they’re probably not all that concerned with the network complexities and software intricacies involved in porting a customer. And despite the fact that most wireless carriers opted not to market their services based on portability before the date—and those that did waited until very late in the game to start doing so—both consumer advocacy groups and news outlets did their fair share of broadcasting about portability in the weeks leading up to Nov. 24.

Still, though—I honestly expected number portability to be something that caught on among consumers over the ensuing months, not something that would be popular from the get-go. The idea that so many consumers were so well aware of the precise day they could port their numbers should be a very jarring wake-up call to wireless carriers. Did you know exactly how high wireless service was on consumers’ priority lists, and exactly how far they would go to be satisfied?

Contrary to the quote from Synchronoss CEO Steve Waldis that ran on the cover of the Nov. 17 issue of Telephony (“It won’t be like people lining up at midnight waiting for that Harry Potter book”), wireless service truly is a phenomenon about which consumers care passionately, and they really will go to lengths to ensure their own satisfaction. If you weren’t convinced of that before, this week already has proved that without a doubt.

E-mail me at jmeyers@primediabusiness.com.