A plan to let cell-phone customers switch service providers without giving up their phone numbers would likely hurt industry stalwarts AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless, according to a recent report from brokerage firm Merrill Lynch.
Meanwhile, such a move could prove advantageous for Verizon Wireless, the country's top cell-phone service provider, as well as newcomer T-Mobile, the report said.
Verizon and T-Mobile have already made requests to the Federal Communications Commission to allow customers from competing carriers to switch over to their services without having to give up their phone numbers.
"While the national wireless carriers have uniformly stated their general opposition to WNP (wireless local number portability), we think it is interesting that Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA are among the first to potentially break ranks," the analysts said. "In our view, this makes sense."
Verizon, which has done a good job snapping up consumers like soccer moms and anyone interested in a cell phone for safety, could possibly steal some of AT&T Wireless' business customers if those customers were allowed to switch, the analysts said. As for T-Mobile, it is one of the newer and smaller carriers in the country, so it has nothing to lose from a change in policy.
The report, authored by Merrill analysts Linda Mutschler, David Janazzo and Wendy Liu, added that AT&T and Cingular, which are both in the midst of changing cellular networks, could lose customers in the transition. These companies also boast large market shares -- Cingular is No. 2 and AT&T is No. 3 in the market -- so they may have a lot to lose, they said. AT&T Wireless, in particular, has a large, desirable base of business customers.
"Based on our assessment, we generally view AT&T Wireless and Cingular as having the most at risk," the report concluded.
The FCC has mandated that the cell-phone industry let its customers switch carriers without having to give up their phone numbers by Nov. 24. But the industry has vehemently opposed the policy, saying it could cost carriers up to $500 million a year to implement.
AT&T is now lobbying the FCC to extend wireless local number portability to customers of traditional wired-line carriers who want to keep their phone numbers but get a cell-phone instead.
The industry's trade group -- Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association -- and Verizon Wireless have challenged WNP in the U.S. Court of Appeals. While Merrill Lynch did not predict the outcome of the case, it expects the court to make a decision by this summer and for WNP to be implemented in "the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas" by Nov. 24.
Even though Verizon filed the lawsuit, the company -- along with T-Mobile -- have made "bona-fide requests" to the FCC to transfer numbers from competing carriers to their own companies, Merrill Lynch said.
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Wi-Fi a household name: Wi-Fi wireless Internet access in coffee shops, parks and other public places has grown to the point that 38 percent of American adults know what it is, according to a recent survey administered by market research firm Ipsos-Reid.
The survey of 1,008 U.S. adults found that 41 percent of them had heard of Wi-Fi, while 38 percent of them knew exactly what it was.
Among the people familiar with it, 13 percent of the respondents had a Wi-Fi network at home -- the equivalent of about 3 percent of households nationwide, Ipsos-Reid said. Another 14 percent of the respondents said they were likely to purchase Wi-Fi systems in the next six months.
A Wi-Fi network lets users surf the Web wirelessly as long as they are no more than 100 feet away from an access point that powers the system.
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More Wi-Fi news: T-Mobile, which offers Wi-Fi service in every Starbucks coffee shop in the United States, said it would slash the costs for using the service.
In a move to entice more latte-chugging customers, the company on Friday said it would reduce the cost for unlimited access from $40 to $30 a month. It also cut down the price for a "day-use pass" that lets users have Wi-Fi access in any of the 1,200 Starbucks for 24 hours to $6 per day.
In a separate press release on Monday, T-Mobile said it plans to launch a Wi-Fi hot spot in the San Francisco airport this Wednesday. No details on the service were immediately available.
