One year after number portability: China Mobile and other operators use various means to "retain" users, and 70% of consumers encounter obstacles

Recently, the Shaanxi Provincial Communications Administration punished China Mobile's Xi'an branch for its illegal behavior of refusing to provide users with number portability services without justifiable reasons. It gave Xi'an Mobile a warning and imposed an administrative penalty of 50,000 yuan.

On November 27, 2019, the number portability service was officially launched nationwide. It has been a year now, but during this period, similar cases have occurred repeatedly. According to the survey report on the "number portability" situation released by the Beijing Consumer Association, 70.39% of the respondents who have applied for "number portability" said they had encountered certain difficulties and obstacles.

It is generally believed in the industry that the implementation of number portability is intended to force telecom operators to optimize their products and services, thereby protecting the basic rights and interests of users. However, in the specific implementation of number portability, operators have repeatedly used unfair means to obstruct users, which has disappointed consumers. For operators, the key issue that needs to be considered now is how to improve services to better attract and retain users.

After one year of number portability service, China Mobile and other companies use various means to "retain" users

In October this year, Mr. Cao from Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, posted a video online saying that when he transferred his number to another mobile company, the package agreement was extended for 18 years for no reason and the number could not be cancelled. The video sparked heated discussions as soon as it was released, and many netizens left comments saying that they had encountered the same thing.

It is reported that Mr. Cao spent 800 yuan to apply for a China Mobile auspicious number card in 2018. At that time, the staff said that the agreement period was 2 years. But in August this year, after using the number for more than two years, Mr. Cao planned to transfer his number to another network, but was told that because his number was an auspicious number and expired in 2038, he could not transfer his number to another network.

Subsequently, the Shaanxi Provincial Communications Administration opened an investigation into the matter and found that Xi'an Mobile, in accordance with its own regulations on the management of premium numbers, had adjusted the user agreement period to 20 years, and proposed to charge users for breach of contract and restrict users from canceling their accounts, thus hindering users from porting their numbers to other networks. The Shaanxi Provincial Communications Administration gave Xi'an Mobile a warning and imposed an administrative penalty of 50,000 yuan. In addition, it required Shaanxi Mobile to severely punish the relevant responsible persons.

Mr. Cao's case is not an isolated one. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "Number Portability Service Management Regulations" require that telecom operators should not set up special tariff plans and marketing plans for number portability users during the process of providing number portability services, and should not use technical means such as interception and restriction to affect the communication service quality of number portability users. However, in the process of implementing number portability services, many cases have been exposed by the media.

In early and mid-January this year, the State Council Inspection Office sent personnel to Henan and Shandong provinces to conduct on-site unannounced inspections on the problems in the implementation of number portability services. The inspection found that some telecommunications companies in Henan and Shandong had problems including: illegally adding preferential services on the Internet, restricting users' demand for number portability; restricting "premium number" users from porting networks, or requiring high liquidated damages; and inconsistent online and offline responses, which made it time-consuming and laborious for users to consult policies.

On July 13, CCTV News reported that on the same day, in the same business hall, none of the phone owners who applied for number portability were successful, and the staff said that the systems of the three major operators had errors at the same time.

In this regard, Tang Jiansheng, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Consumer Council, believes that the difficulties consumers encounter in the business process are often due to the profit considerations of telecom operators rather than real technical difficulties.

According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, since the official launch of the "number portability" service, the national telecommunications management agencies have interviewed, notified, ordered rectification, and imposed administrative penalties on telecommunications companies at all levels for related violations more than 500 times. However, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also pointed out that some companies prevented and delayed users from applying for the "number portability" service, and some companies did not stick to their service positioning and used "number portability" as a means of competition. These situations still exist to varying degrees, which need to be paid close attention to.

Although operators' restrictions on number portability have been repeatedly regulated, reporters found on complaint websites that many users still encounter various inconveniences when porting their numbers. For example, they need to go to a designated business hall to handle the matter, and their complaints are not resolved in a timely manner. There are also "unfair terms" that restrict number portability, including free SMS discounts and data package packages that need to be used for 24 months.

70% of consumers encounter obstacles, and operators' services need to be optimized urgently

Recently, the Beijing Consumer Association released a survey report on the "number portability" situation. The results showed that among the respondents who had applied for "number portability", 70.39% said that they encountered certain difficulties and obstacles in the process of "number portability". Some consumers had to give up "number portability" because the original package contract had not expired or involved liquidated damages.

The survey shows that consumers are dissatisfied with the convenience of the handling procedures of various operators. The three major operators all stipulate that "number portability" must be handled at their own business halls, and newly purchased numbers must go through the service effectiveness process before they can be ported. In addition, due to the impact of the epidemic, the three major operators have cancelled the door-to-door card writing service, and the online handling function has not been opened.

Obviously, the number portability services currently provided by operators are not sophisticated enough and still fail to meet consumers' demands for high-quality experience.

At the same time, some operators' staff have poor service awareness. For example, in the survey, when consumers asked to apply for "number portability", some operator staff told them that they could directly contact the carrier to handle it, but did not inform them of the relevant policies. This caused consumers to go directly to the carrier to handle it without understanding the relevant requirements of "number portability", and then they were rejected because they did not meet the porting requirements, resulting in the dilemma of running back and forth.

Data provided by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that as of the end of August, more than 12 million users across the country have completed number portability. Compared with the total of nearly 1.6 billion mobile phone users, the number portability rate is less than 1%.

The operating data of the three major operators in October showed that China Mobile's mobile customer base increased by 163,000, reaching a total of 946 million; China Telecom's mobile user base increased by 810,000, reaching a total of 350 million; China Unicom's mobile billing users decreased by 148,000 in October, reaching a total of 309 million, and the mobile billing users decreased by 9.441 million this year. Since the beginning of this year, except for China Telecom, the other two operators have continued to lose mobile users for several months.

Independent telecom analyst Fu Liang believes that around 1.6 billion will be the peak number of mobile phone users in my country, and it will be difficult to make a major breakthrough unless the environment changes significantly.

It can be seen that the mobile user development of operators will reach the ceiling. Under this circumstance, with the continuous advancement of number portability, the competition pressure on user development of the three major operators is increasing.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that the top three reasons why users choose to port their numbers are to choose a better network, cheaper rates and better services. At the same time, after the implementation of number portability, the overall rates of telecom companies have further decreased.

Now, one year after the implementation of "number portability", Xi'an Mobile received the first fine related to number portability, which means that the supervision is intensified. This also sounded the alarm for operators. How to improve service quality and attract and retain users has become a problem that the three major operators have to face and solve.