COMMENTARY:

Wireless industry needs to save face with subscribers, regulators The Canadian Wireless Telecommu-nications Association (CWTA) seems to have been unsuccessful in convincing analysts that a two-year implementation for wireless number portability (WNP) is required. After mountains of ink have been spilled decrying the CWTA’s implementation schedule, the association went on the offensive last week and held a conference call with analysts – a move that was designed to convince them the two-year plan developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was the best possible solution for Canadians. Brian Sharwood, industry analyst with the SeaBoard Group, believes the briefing was to recover from bad press. "Maybe if they’d involved us in the first place and told us how complicated it was, perhaps we’d have a little more sympathy. But it looks like post-facto recovery," he tells Report on Wireless. Did the briefing convince him WNP was complicated and required a year-and-a-half of work? "No. Not at all," he says. Delaying WNP implementation for two years has also angered high-ranking government officials. It is rumoured that a bigwig bureaucrat at Industry Canada distributed a note saying he was very unhappy with the wireless industry’s position that it will take two years to implement WNP. It is this note, according to sources, that sparked the interrogatories to the wireless industry association from the CRTC. But what can the government do to make WNP available sooner? Perhaps more importantly, will the CRTC intervene and force carriers to do it quicker in its decision regarding Telecom Public Notice 2005-2, expected in mid-November? That’s unclear at this point. Based on history, though, it would be highly unlikely for the commission to come out with a firm deadline for WNP implementation. It didn’t do it with the transition to DTV, which would have freed up 700 MHz spectrum for use by public safety and national security organizations, so there isn’t much hope that it will do the same for WNP. The CWTA has warned the CRTC that if there is more government pressure to force the issue of a WNP implementation time frame, then it will actually take longer than the "aggressive" two-year plan as proposed by PwC. "In order to ensure that the September 2007 launch date is not jeopardized, the CWTA and the wireless carriers are currently continuing with the planning process in accordance with the PwC plan. The CWTA notes that significant deviations from the plan may cause re-work...Furthermore, while the CWTA has obtained unanimous support from all its wireless carrier members for its original PwC plan, the commission should be aware that we are unable at this time to guarantee that this level of support will extend to any revised approach," reads the September 30 response to the CRTC’s interrogatories. The role of the CWTA is to do what its members tell it, and it’s no secret the national wireless companies don’t want WNP. They only acquiesced after the federal government mentioned it, forcefully, in its February 23 budget. "The CWTA is a lobby group for its members...The members have this fear that the world will fall apart when number portability comes in...Peter Barnes (CWTA president and CEO) is tasked with slowing this thing down," Sharwood says. It also been suggested that the CWTA’s plan flies in the face of competition. By making WNP available from all carriers to all subscribers at the same time, it is erasing the supposed benefits of competition. The carrier that has the most efficient system of porting numbers will benefit the most. AT&T Wireless in the United States was hard-hit by problems associated with WNP and lost a substantial number of subscribers as a result. As Sharwood points out, "If you can’t keep up, get out of the game. Isn’t that letting the market decide? If you can’t figure it out, Bell will just buy you or take all your customers." There is no question that implementing WNP is complicated and time-consuming, but the door appears to be open for the wireless industry lobby group to save face with the government regulators and their subscribers. The PwC plan does indicate that WNP could be phased in, as has been requested by the CRTC, which could translate into WNP being available a few months sooner. This phased-in approach and the resulting savings of three months of implementation could be all the CWTA needs to convince government regulators and critics that its plan is acceptable.

COMMENTARY:

News | 10/18/2005 4:00 am EDT

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