When porting your number to another network, operators should first change their service mindset

Because the Premier clearly pointed out in the government report that this year "number portability will be implemented nationwide", number portability has become the focus of national attention. However, the industry seems to be divided into two camps regarding the implementation of this policy: those who are not optimistic and those who are full of expectations.

[[260335]]

The former group is mostly people in the communications industry. Although the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a document requiring all operators to "deepen the standardized handling of number portability services, not to add handling conditions or artificially set up obstacles without authorization, and not to use number portability to implement vicious competition", the three major operators have also stated that they will actively implement number portability services, but some people in the communications industry, including many experts, are not optimistic about number portability, believing that as the service quality and experience of operators converge, the soil for number portability is not fertile in China. The latter group is mostly ordinary consumers, who believe that the implementation of this policy will give them more choices and force operators to improve their service levels by voting with their feet.

The number portability service has been implemented in China for eight years. Over the past eight years, this service has always been accompanied by controversy and the effect has not been satisfactory. According to data released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in January 2019, as of the end of December 2018, a total of 1.67 million people had ported their numbers nationwide, of which 630,000 were newly added in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 62%. A key factor in the surge in number portability data in 2018 was that, in accordance with the arrangements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology reset the number portability process. The new process design reduced the obstruction from operators and reduced a lot of resistance for users in the process of porting. However, even so, there are still many problems to be solved in number portability, and there are still certain technical difficulties in the actual pilot operation. The industry's consensus is that number portability will not be realized nationwide until at least 2020.

But it is clear that the government has significantly accelerated the implementation of this policy. In fact, the early implementation of this policy is not without some "spoilers". First, after testing, the number management platform of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, commissioned by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, has solved the process and technical problems of number portability in the past, and is ready for full implementation across the country; secondly, in the context of continuing to promote the policy of speed increase and fee reduction, number portability will help further implement this policy. Therefore, it is only natural to implement number portability across the country this year.

Although the three major operators have actively stated that they will fully implement this policy, there is no specific timetable for when it can be fully implemented because it involves the transformation of billing and related systems. Moreover, within the telecom industry, there is a voice that believes that there are many users with dual networks and dual SIM cards nowadays, and the rates are already very low. In addition to causing a burden to the operators, number portability is of little significance. Therefore, some people believe that number portability will become a waste of time.

However, the government's strong promotion of this policy obviously has a more far-reaching intention. From the current perspective, number portability will force operators to further increase speed and reduce fees. The implementation of number portability services will inevitably promote market competition and improve the overall service level of the industry to a certain extent. Therefore, major operators must find ways to retain old customers and acquire new customers from competitors by continuously improving service quality such as increasing speed and reducing fees. Therefore, number portability will inevitably cause changes in the market structure. Therefore, number portability will not only not become a waste, but operators also need to attach great importance to it.

This is because the number portability policy has been fully implemented, from the pilot program in five provinces and cities to the nationwide coverage, which means that China Mobile Communications has truly shifted from being "market-driven" to being "service-driven." Number portability forces operators to change their mindset and comprehensively improve service quality.

The communication market has shifted from technology-driven to application-driven, and from market demand to service demand. This has become a general trend, and it is also testing the ability of operators to adapt to changing needs. With the widespread application of mobile Internet services, competition among telecom operators has become more intense, and the competition between them has shifted from simple network competition and price competition to customer-oriented service competition, channel competition and brand competition. The development of the telecom industry has also gradually shifted from technology-driven to customer demand-driven and market-driven, and the management, business philosophy and system of enterprises have gradually shifted to "customer-centric".

The improvement of services is always promoted with competition, and the same is true for telecom operators. Although the soil for number portability in my country is not fertile, it does not mean that operators can take it lightly. After all, the high degree of freedom of users to switch between operators is an opportunity as well as a challenge, especially in an era when pure new users are scarce and the competition for existing users has begun.