Number Portability and Cross Provider Charges

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ebendl

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Number portability

Hi all.

Don't know if this is true (did a quick search through the forum), but I was informed when I phoned Nashua Mobile today that number portability on cellphone providers will be available in December this year.

Does anyone have more information on this?

My other question is whether I will have to wait until my current contract expires before I can move to another network? He told me he doesn't think so, but I am quite sceptical regarding this... I mean, CellC won't just 'drop' my contract so that I can move my business to Vodacom! One would probably need to buy out the contract and then take out a new contract - which seems like an expensive option.
 
Ebendi,

I am keen to know the answer to your 1st question too, as I thought this would only happen late next year.

I don't think you will be allowed to just drop your contract. I am sure you will have to fulfill you legal contract until the end (1 or 2 years).

I think this will be the major catalyst towards much lower cell rates as the providers will fight very hard to win over the other providers users. The sooner the better.
 
ebendl said:
Hi all.

Don't know if this is true (did a quick search through the forum), but I was informed when I phoned Nashua Mobile today that number portability on cellphone providers will be available in December this year.

Does anyone have more information on this?

My other question is whether I will have to wait until my current contract expires before I can move to another network? He told me he doesn't think so, but I am quite sceptical regarding this... I mean, CellC won't just 'drop' my contract so that I can move my business to Vodacom! One would probably need to buy out the contract and then take out a new contract - which seems like an expensive option.
Click to expand...
December sounds right to me.

AFAIK you'll have to complete your current contract before they'll release you. I think they're also allowed to charge a fee to release the number but I'm not 100% on that.

I've been holding off renewing my contract (even to the point paying case for a new phone the other day) until number portability comes into play. Then whoever has the cheapest rates wins.

Do people realize that in almost every country I can think of cellphone companies operate on 12 month contracts and they still give the customers the same phones that we get here on a 24 month contract.
 
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At this stage I don't mind paying more - as long as I get the services I pay for. CellC was supposed to be the cheapest - but I don't think anymore (compared to MTN and Vodacom's happry hours), and their data services are useless.

Unfortunately, I am locked in a contract until December 2006... bwana, wish I were in your shoes!!
 
So - this is all probably going to go live with the CELLULAR service providers in about December 2005. Yay - one number for life.

Now for the Problem:
Currently, we run a system on our outgoing telephone calls that routes calls through to different devices based on the call destination.

e.g. If I call an MTN cell number, it gets routed through an MTN gateway, or if I call a VODA number, it gets routed through a VODA gateway. Also, calling land lines goes through the normal teklom landline.

This is done to save me money on "cross provider charges", and it works well.

When number portability comes in, the current way of routing will no longer make any sense. There is no way to determine who the CELLULAR service provider is based on the telephone number dialled.

This is a SNEAKY side-effect of number portability, and it is going to cost me a lot of money.

I think that the idiots that allowed this to happen should also force the CELLULAR players to not charge cross provider fee's, as there is no way to tell what service provider you are dialling.

Grrrrrrrr. :mad:
 
Cell C fan!

I'm currently on a contract with MTN, and data aside, Cell C is the cheepest. The reason being that all these new price cuts by vodacom and mtn affect mostly the prepaid (mostly black and poorer) than the postpaid market.

So these new fees don't seem to affect the contract people that much.

I stand to be corrected but we should all support cell c the same way we should support kalula and 1time above saa.

I think these companies should be reward financially for providing south african consumers with an alternate purchase option. If there services are homogenous then I encourage the forum's open minded members to support then.

same story when the SNO comes. Cancel telkom and migrate, its your right!

viva competition viva!
 
And I was all keen for a second :(

I suppose the positives are pretty good though. One number for life is very attractive.
 
stoke, this is something I was actually thinking about yesterday.

I am not sure if there will be any solution but I have already been in contact with our providers to see if they can find anything out for us.
 
Okay, so CellC is cheapest.

I just have a big problem with their GPRS service. Originally this wasn't the main reason for taking out the contract - it was because they were the cheapest. At this stage, however, I am looking at GPRS. I don't need a lot of data, so if its expensive thats okay. Problem is, I get horrible performance from CellC.

Trying to correct this problem with them has been fruitless so far, so I am looking at other options... :(

I support companies trying to provide cheaper service! As long as they do exactly that - provide the service.
 
they are setting up a central db which they all will query to find out where to router the call and what charges apply. i asume you would have to do the same.

maybe only update devices with a snapshot of the db every couple of days/weeks/months. how often are ppl really going to change their sp?
 
daysleeper said:
So these new fees don't seem to affect the contract people that much.
Click to expand...

Daysleeper, my understanding is that most contract subscribers will also enjoy the benefit of the lower rates during the "Happy Hours". The only contract users excluded are Talk 500 and up as their rates are already cheaper than this. Maybe I got it wrong? :confused:

http://168.210.128.126/about/media_centre/pressreleases_article.aspx?article=331&search=&page=1

Why use a network which does not have the same coverage as the others just to save a few cents? The frustration of dropped calls, etc. is not worth the few cents I may save.

Lucky we live in a democratic country and we are all entitled to our own views :D

IMHO, Cell-C sucks - especially their cr.ppy radio and TV ads! :eek:
 
I have another question regarding the whole number portability thing:

How are we gonna know who's number we are calling? I am gonna be dialling an 082 number from my vodacom cellphone (thinking that i am paying the vodacom-vodacom rate), but the 082 number is gonna be on MTN , due to number portability. So how am i going to know ahead of time how much i am going to pay for the call?
 
mic_y said:
How are we gonna know who's number we are calling? I am gonna be dialling an 082 number from my vodacom cellphone (thinking that i am paying the vodacom-vodacom rate), but the 082 number is gonna be on MTN , due to number portability. So how am i going to know ahead of time how much i am going to pay for the call?
Click to expand...

Mic_y, you will not know - I suppose it will be a case of too bad so sad. Unless of course some miracle forces Telkom to reduce interconnect fees that the cell networks can reduce their inter-network call cost to make internetwork calls the same price as on-network calls.

We can only hope and keep dreaming! :rolleyes:
 
now I can keep my number and go to different operator.
but I heard handset subsidy is going to disappear when the number portability kicks in??
 
stoke said:
So - this is all probably going to go live with the CELLULAR service providers in about December 2005. Yay - one number for life.

Now for the Problem:
Currently, we run a system on our outgoing telephone calls that routes calls through to different devices based on the call destination.

e.g. If I call an MTN cell number, it gets routed through an MTN gateway, or if I call a VODA number, it gets routed through a VODA gateway. Also, calling land lines goes through the normal teklom landline.

This is done to save me money on "cross provider charges", and it works well.

When number portability comes in, the current way of routing will no longer make any sense. There is no way to determine who the CELLULAR service provider is based on the telephone number dialled.

This is a SNEAKY side-effect of number portability, and it is going to cost me a lot of money.

I think that the idiots that allowed this to happen should also force the CELLULAR players to not charge cross provider fee's, as there is no way to tell what service provider you are dialling.

Grrrrrrrr. :mad:
Click to expand...


They were discussing this very issue in parliament's portfolio committee on communications this morning. Wish I could tell you more, but the sound quality in the room was very bad, and they kept referring to subsections and I didn't have a copy of the bill in front of me - it was hard to follow, and I was able to only pick up snipppets.
 
The only nice thing about number portability is that one can keep your number for life - in theory making cell phone costs less because of increased competition.

The reality is that the cellphone co's are going to make piles of money because people won't know if they are making cross-network calls or not.
 
mic_y said:
How are we gonna know who's number we are calling? I am gonna be dialling an 082 number from my vodacom cellphone (thinking that i am paying the vodacom-vodacom rate), but the 082 number is gonna be on MTN , due to number portability. So how am i going to know ahead of time how much i am going to pay for the call?
Click to expand...
MTN numbers have a noticably different ring tone to the other providers. I know it doesn't really solve the problem 100% but at least you know when you are calling a MTN number.
 
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