Telecom 'selfish' on mobile number portability

By PETER GRIFFIN, IT editor

Telecom is acting with "transparent self-interest" in playing down the need for mobile number portability, a senior telecoms lobbyist says.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Ernie Newman said number portability would allow the country's 2.8 million mobile phone users to take their number with them if they switched providers.

But Telecom boss Theresa Gattung was quoted yesterday as saying she had not yet committed on a timetable for introducing mobile number portability.

"It is not a priority," she said.

That followed similar comments from her right-hand man, Simon Moutter, at a conference in Wellington last month.

Moutter, Telecom's chief operating officer, said introducing number portability for the fixed network would cost "tens of millions" of dollars and was unlikely to happen until the company introduced its next generation network - which could take years.

Newman is frustrated that the Telecommunications Carriers Forum, which is dealing with the issue, is powerless to force Telecom, Vodafone or other members to make portability happen.

"The regulator is saying he is powerless until the forum delivers its code and the forum is constituted in such a way that any one of the large telcos can stop it from doing anything at all," he said.

"The two top executives of the incumbent [Telecom] have taken the ground out from underneath everyone."

But the Government may be close to wading into the argument. IT Associate Minister David Cunliffe said he had requested a briefing on the number portability issue.

For smaller players, to have any hope of entering a market dominated by Telecom and Vodafone, number portability is essential.

Tex Edwards, the head of Econet Wireless, which has been trying unsuccessfully to get the country's third mobile network off the ground for several years, said number portability and provisions such as being able to roam on competing networks were essential for it ever to compete.

Edwards said Vodafone, with its larger market share, was the real incumbent in New Zealand. Newman rejected Gattung's argument that mobile number portability's introduction in Australia had not seen customers switching networks in droves.

"The mere fact that porting is available has a profound impact on the behaviour of the market."

Telecom spokesman John Goulter said the company would try to get a form of call-forwarding up and running by the middle of next year. It will divert a number to another network, but cannot handle some advanced features.

However, Telecom had proposed a system used by Telstra and British Telecom that would avoid large set-up costs but perform most features. It was working on a target of April 2007 for full mobile number portability - too far off for many people's liking.