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Consumers Face Long Delays in Trying to Transfer Cell Phone Numbers

Posted on: Thursday, 4 December 2003, 06:00 CST

Dec. 5--Many consumers trying to transfer their cell phone numbers to different companies are encountering long delays caused by incorrect data, technical glitches and a growing backlog of transfer requests at wireless companies, industry experts said this week.

Almost two weeks into the federal number portability mandate, the transfer process, which was expected to be troubled initially, is underperforming even those low expectations, these people say. More than half of all transfer requests are requiring manual processing, adding further delays.

"It has been worse than we feared shortly before going in," said Roger Entner, an analyst with the Yankee Group, a research firm.

"We did a brief report saying there would be a rocky start," Mr. Entner said. "This would be way beyond rocky. The system is straining at all levels from the automatic porting to the manual porting, to basic breakdown of business practices."

Phone companies and wireless retailers such as RadioShack Corp. said many transfer requests are being processed automatically through computer systems and industry clearinghouses.

"The transferring or porting process is mostly taking about as long as we predicted ... anywhere between a few hours and a few business days," said Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association.

"We hope that every port going forward gets a little faster."

Experts have singled out one company -- AT&T Wireless Services -- for having the longest delays and the most orders requiring manual processing.

"A disproportionate number are having problems with AT&T," said Janee Briesemeister, a policy analyst at Consumers Union, which has been soliciting consumer feedback on its Web site www.escapecellhell.com.

"We have heard it's taking several days for AT&T to release cell phone numbers and sometimes more than a week."

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission sent AT&T Wireless a letter asking for an explanation of its problems and what it was doing to fix them. The company has until Wednesday to respond.

An AT&T Wireless spokesman conceded that more of its orders had to be processed manually -- more than 60 percent -- than the 50 percent industry average. But he said the entire industry was dealing with the same glitches, which were expected.

"We have our issues and we are dealing with them, and the other carriers do as well," said Mark Siegel. "Our error rate is a bit above the industry at this point in time, but it's very early."

(AT&T Wireless is a separate entity from the long-distance company AT&T Corp.)

Plano resident Tom McGinnis canceled his AT&T Wireless service Thursday after waiting almost two weeks for his number to be transferred to Verizon Wireless.

Mr. McGinnis' transfer was tied up because AT&T Wireless had assigned his Social Security number to his wife and vice versa in its database. After spending hours on the phone with the phone companies, he decided he would be better off distributing new numbers to friends, family and co-workers.

"I would rather call them and send them e-mails and give them new numbers," he said. "It's better than dealing with this."

An AT&T Wireless spokesman declined to discuss Mr. McGinnis' delay. "We are making every effort to resolve it," said Rebecca Noah-Poynter. "It's fair to say that we apologized for the frustration."

In the months leading up to number portability, phone companies assembled hundreds of workers in large call centers to handle transfer requests. They troubleshoot transfers with counterparts at other companies and industry clearinghouses.

A consultant who manages one such center for a phone company said his agents were spending as much as 45 minutes to an hour on hold to talk to agents at other companies.

"We are throwing more and more bodies at the problem to move the process faster," said Greg Douglass, a vice president at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young in Irving. "Some of the carriers were clearly not prepared for the onslaught of" orders requiring manual processing.

Interestingly, excessive consumer demand is not the cause of the backlog. Mr. Douglass said transfer requests have been low most days and typically less than the 80,000 requests handled on Nov. 24, the first day of number portability.

Mr. Douglass cites three key failures:

Consumers and sales people are entering requests with inaccurate names, addresses, etc.

Phone companies' billing systems have incorrect data such as Social Security numbers for their customers.

Some carriers weren't prepared with enough well trained agents.

Tying phone company computer systems together to verify and transfer numbers is bound to be difficult because they were never meant to be connected, said David H. Murashige, a Nortel Networks vice president.

"That's not how you set up your customer database," he said.

In most cases, the breakdowns have meant consumers are carrying two phones for several days as they wait for their number to make its way to their new device.

But for at least one Dallas resident has lost cellular service for more than a week.

Karen Potasznik's five Sprint PCS cell phones stopped working soon after she tried to transfer the numbers to Cingular Wireless on Nov. 25, the second day of number portability. In the next few days, three of her Cingular phones came to life, but she and one of her three daughters remained without service until Thursday.

"The worst case scenario to me is my daughter Amanda, God forbid, is driving home at night without a cell phone," Ms. Potasznik said. "That's what I really want it for. That's why I am really angry about it."

A Sprint spokeswoman said the company only received requests to transfer three of the Potaszniks' five numbers to Cingular and couldn't explain why her phone had stopped working. A Cingular spokeswoman said she couldn't talk in detail about individual transfers but blamed a backlog and the added complexity of transferring five numbers at once.

"Many of the transfer requests that came in the first few days were caught in a backlog as all the systems and process hiccups were worked out," said Annette Teter of Cingular.

Officials and analysts said Ms. Potasznik's experience is rare, because consumers should continue to have service on at least their old phones during the transfer process.

Consumer advocates and experts are advising consumers to wait another few weeks before moving their phone numbers because of the delays.

Mr. Douglass said he is waiting. "I see it on the inside, and I know it's not working so well."

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(c) 2003, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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