THE collapse of wireless telephone operator Ionica has exposed a flaw in
Britain鈥檚 telecoms regulations, which are supposed to allow subscribers to keep
their phone numbers when moving between rival services. Many businesses are
likely to lose customers as a result.
When Cambridge-based Ionica shuts down this month, most subscribers will move
to British Telecom, and a few to local cable companies. But at least 1 in
10鈥攎any of them businesses鈥攚ill lose their phone numbers, and if a
vociferous few had not pressured telecoms watchdog Oftel, even more could have
been affected.
Tim Reynolds, an Essex-based telecoms consultant, signed up with Ionica and
has been challenging Oftel鈥檚 failure to transfer all Ionica鈥檚 numbers to BT. 鈥淣o
one seems to have thought of what happens when an operator which allocates a
number goes out of business,鈥� says Reynolds.
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In February 1993, the Department of Trade licensed Ionica, a new company, to
compete using wireless technology with phone companies BT and Mercury (now Cable
and Wireless). Ionica used microwave radio links from homes and offices to its
exchange, and thought it could undercut BT and Mercury by 20 per cent.
By 1998, Ionica had connected 62 000 subscribers. But BT, Mercury and the
cable TV companies cut their prices, and in October 1998 Ionica ran out of cash.
BT then saw the opportunity to sign up most of Ionica鈥檚 subscribers, so it
underwrote the service until it had connected them. Earlier this year, however,
subscribers learnt that they could only keep their Ionica number with BT if it
had been allocated by BT before they switched to Ionica. If generated by Ionica,
the number would disappear. This flies in the face of assurances made by Oftel
in 1995.
Oftel wanted telephone numbers to be portable so that consumers could move
freely between rival telecoms services without changing the numbers. In May
1996, cable TV outfit Nynex CabelComms became the first phone company to offer
portability. Now all Britain鈥檚 cellphone firms offer it.
At first, Oftel said it was powerless to insist that BT let all Ionica鈥檚
subscribers bring their numbers with them. Oftel blamed an unforeseen technical
problem: the portability scheme relies on each network providing an electronic
鈥渨all鈥� to bounce calls to another network. As Ionica鈥檚 network closes, the
virtual wall disappears, and with it, call bouncing.
Although Oftel鈥檚 director-general, David Edmonds, said last year that the
telecoms industry had 鈥渂een aware of Ionica鈥檚 difficulties for some time鈥�,
neither Oftel nor BT made contingency plans for call bouncing.
In January, following subscribers鈥� complaints, Oftel said it was 鈥渆xerting a
lot of pressure鈥� on BT to provide a full transfer before the final shutdown. BT
claims that action now taken will let 90 per cent of Ionica鈥檚 customers keep
their numbers. But Oftel admits that 鈥淏T鈥檚 proposals are not yet complete鈥� and
some subscribers will have to use a new number for an 鈥渋nterim period鈥� before
getting their old one back.