Big money in portable numbers, says report

By PETER GRIFFIN

A long-awaited report on phone number portability claims its introduction could benefit New Zealanders by at least $192 million over 10 years.

Long term number portability (LTNP) would let consumers keep an the same number when switching phone companies, making it easier to seek the best telecom deals.

The report, commissioned by the Number Administration Deed (NAD) - which includes CallPlus, Clear Communications, Econet Wireless, Ihug, TeamTalk, Telecom, TelstraSaturn, Vodafone and Zip Internet - gave compelling reasons for number portability's introduction.

But it said the level of consensus among NAD's members would determine the benefit to consumers.

"Whether full LTNP yields a net social benefit critically depends on the price structure adopted for charging customers for porting services," said the report.

A makeshift form of number portability exists in call forwarding, which Telecom says removes the need to introduce number portability.

But call forwarding becomes expensive when high volumes of numbers are transferred between carriers.

And it does not allow some services to be carried to forwarded numbers.

Clear's manager of industry and regulatory affairs, Grant Forsyth, said number portability would especially benefit business customers who had invested heavily in advertising their phone number on everything from shop-front signs to business cards, and therefore were reluctant to change their number.

But giving phone users greater freedom to switch will come at substantial capital cost to telcos - somewhere between $74 million and $89 million, says the report.

That cost will likely be spread among the members of NAD, who now have three months to thrash out network and financial issues before deciding whether to proceed, said NAD chairwoman Liz Longworth.

A less enthusiastic member of the group is Telecom, which dominates the fixed-line and mobile markets and has the most to lose from number portability.

Its general manager of Government and industry relations, Bruce Parkes, said compelling reasons would have to be found to justify the big network upgrades that number portability would require.

Ernie Newman, chief executive of the Telecommunications Users Association said the fact that number portability existed would lead to improved service from the telcos.

"With number portability the carriers know they can lose their customers at the drop of a hat," he said.