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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GraceZ who wrote (1916)	2/3/2001 12:41:06 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 46821

Graciella, "... not to mention the number of telephone numbers we had between us... was getting completely out of hand." There is always a hidden penalty, the price of which is never fully known, when you switch directory numbers on the fly in order to take advantage of a competing service. It goes far beyond the costs of stationary. A single lost opportunity caused by someone not being able to reach you for the wrong number could mean a world of difference to a small firm. Sometimes intercept recordings and other announcement techniques help, or call forwarding, but often the first-time caller will be lost to those. Local number portability (LNP) was supposed to take care of this, but I have found out the hard way that LNP only applies when you are switching from the dominant ILEC to a competitor, and not the other way around. Which is, IMO, a crock. Upstarts have no incentive to make it work in reverse, while the ILECs had their feet held to the fire by the FCC who held out the interstate market carrot if they did, and a stick, if they didn't. Actually, the way the LNP platforms were created using proxy numbers and directories/translation databases, they should work both ways, but the CLECs don't seem to see it that way, yet. If you guessed that I was using a CLEC for our office telephone service and I wanted to retain their directory number while switching back to the ILEC, you are right. ---- In the past two days I read somewhere where a last mile provider was attempting to do something along the lines of what you are looking for, but I don't recall where. If I come across it I'll post. FAC