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CELLPHONE users can expect some intensive courting from their telecom operators, now that a date has been fixed allowing users to retain their cellphone numbers when they switch operators.
What is known as full mobile number portability starts from June 13, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) announced yesterday.
The 130,000 cellphone users who now have more than one number will be allowed to pick which one to hold on to. Your telco will start contacting you from April 22.
This is the biggest shakeup in the mobile industry in recent years, removing the last remaining inconvenience of switching operators. This is likely to set off the latest round of competition among telcos here, with customers likely to benefit.
The move, however, has been slow in coming. It began with an earlier number portability service in 1997, which let users forward their calls to a new number when they switched telcos.
But it still meant that users had to inform contacts of their new numbers. They also could not forward multimedia messages.
IDA deputy chief executive Leong Keng Thai said the number of people switching operators may not be big, but the threat of them doing so will keep telcos on their toes.
'Existing customers will also benefit because now they (telcos) will want to try harder to retain you,' he said.
In fact, company director Annie Chua, 34, aims to use the ease of switching as a bargaining chip when her contract with StarHub is up.
'If all three telcos offer the same price, then I'll stay. But I plan to ask StarHub to give me more discount vouchers before I decide,' she added.
Telcos have long resisted full portability as it would mean investing in back-end systems to support the change.
But with the Government throwing in $5 million of the $33 million needed for portability, they fell in line, and are now gearing up for a fight.
Mr Foong King Yew of research consultancy Gartner expects SingTel with 2.3 million of the 5.8 million cellphone lines here to feel the impact of the change first, as the two smaller telcos, StarHub and MobileOne, would be gunning for its customers.
The flurry is expected to be temporary. Once users have decided on their telco when their current contract ends, they are likely to stay put for the length of their new contract.
Experts also predict that telcos will tie users to contracts that are longer than the current two years or so.
Telcos here have already started wooing users.
SingTel and StarHub offer a 'triple play' bundle of cellphone, pay-TV and broadband services, with discounts to those who sign up for more than one service.
All three have also tried locking in users by customising services. For example, family members and groups of workers can now share unused airtime, cutting costs.
How low can prices go?
Because of competition, deals have become more attractive over the years. A basic cellphone plan which cost $47 a month in 1997 now costs just $20.
Experts say further price cuts are quite probable, because telcos still have good margins.
Senior analyst Marc Einstein from research firm Frost & Sullivan said M1 is likely to be the most aggressive because it does not have pay-TV to bundle with its services.
'I won't say a price war will break out but the market will surely become more competitive,' he added.
siewtha@sph.com.sg
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY TAN WEIZHEN
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