Re:Wait till next November... (Score 1)

Number portability is pain in the ass for the network infrastructure manufacturers and even more for the cellular network operators. It is similar burden as the billing systems; very, very complicated technically and hard to implement. But in the end it has to be there. In the Europe the EU even requires it. In the user perspective it is great, but do think that you will get it free. The costs are taken from somewhere else.

But number portability is not the issue here. It is roaming between networks of different operators. In Europe it works great. Operators have made agreements with the other operators in different countries where your own cellular operator does not have coverage. There is no point in building tens of networks in to the same area, not for frequency or financial reasons. Both the home and visited operator benefits the traffic enabled this way. The home operator has to pay some proportion of the billing of the call to the visited network, but it is still better to have traffic than not at all. It is the building and maintaining of the network what is expensive in cellular network world, not the making of the calls.

So here is a message for the cellular network operators in US: it is better to make good partnerships with other operators than try make it all by yourself.