Buying a cell phone this season? You may want to wait until March.

If you're a Canadian and in the market for a new cell phone contract (for yourself or for your company) you should consider that wireless number portability (WLNP) is coming to Canada next March. WNLP is old news in much of Europe, Asia, and of course the US. WLNP allows a cell-phone subscriber to keep their cell-phone number when they switch service providers. For consumers it removes one of the main disincentives to switching. Few people enjoy the hassle of informing friends, family, and colleagues that they have a new cell-phone number, its probably even more disruptive than changing a home phone number as the industry doesn't have the equivalent of "411" service to find a contact's new number. Experience in the US, the UK, and many other countries shows that WLNP increases competition and decreases consumer cost. KPMG, the consulting firm, wrote a whitepaper on WLNP during the transition in the US. They identifed three major factors that will impact cell carriers; declining revenue, increasing operating costs, and declining margins.



As a consumer you won't have much opportunity to personally influence these factors, but you should see the market impact of WLNP very quickly come March. I would recommend holding off on signing up for a new multi-year wireless contract until the impact is reflected in the market. Corporate buyers should think about not only waiting for the market impact of WLNP, but also what they can do to influence the focus areas that KPMG identifies for each factor. A couple of obvious areas are to lower the cost to service your account, such as moving to web-based reporting and eliminating mailed statements. Can you allow the carrier to sell premium services or hardware directly to your employees? As always, understanding the seller's issues "market knowledge" is key to negotiating the best deal for your company.