How is it possible for one telecommunications provider to carry out number porting across technologies and networks or exchanges when another provider, with whom an individual has had a relationship for a fair few years, is unable to do so?
This is a question that Arjuna Fernando, a longtime resident of the suburb of Windsor in Melbourne, is still pondering more than three months after he managed to get his telephone number moved across to a new residence to which he moved recently.
His old residence is just a kilometre from the new one, but at the old one he was using a cable bundle from Optus. He wanted to retain his telephone number, which he has had for nearly three decades, for obvious reasons.
But what seemed like a simple task finally turned into the ultimate exercise in frustration. And taking recourse to the various telco organisations — that seemingly exist to help the ordinary consumer — served absolutely no purpose.
{loadposition sam08}When Fernando asked Optus about moving his number across to the new residence back in March, he was told that it was not possible. When iTWire took up the case, Optus provided the following response:
"Where possible Optus seeks to give customers the option to retain their landline number when they move premises. Unfortunately, this is not possible in some instances, such as when a customer is moving from one exchange to another or, as is the case with Mr Fernando, when a customer’s new property is serviced by a different type of broadband network technology."
But when Fernando contacted Telstra about this, he was given a verbal assurance that the telco could indeed move his number across, no matter that he would be at a new exchange. The use of "a different type of broadband network technology" also apparently was not a hurdle.
Optus was also asked the following question: "If Fernando had been with Telstra and not Optus, would it have been possible for Optus to port his number at the new address even though he would still be moving from cable to ADSL2+?"
To this, Optus responded: "In general, when a customer is changing providers, there are instances where we may not be able to offer them the same number because they are moving from one exchange to another or they are moving between different networks. We do our best to let customers keep their number but it's not always possible."
Exactly what the broadband technology being used had to do with moving a telephone number was not specified.
So if Telstra could do it, why not Optus?
When the question about moving the number over was put to the Australian Communications Media Authority, it chose to pass the buck by suggesting: "I think you'd be best placed to inquire at Communications Alliance or the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman."
The Communications Alliance, being a lobby group for the telco industry, obviously took Optus's side.
(Indeed, the response provided to iTWire from Optus was also provided to the Communications Alliance! When iTWire initially asked Optus about Fernando's case, the telco made a big song and dance about us first getting his permission before anything was disclosed. But Optus had no issue about disclosing communications sent to iTWire to CA without asking first.)
CA chairman John Stanton said: "From what I can tell this does not appear to be a ‘refusal to port’, as you have characterised it, but rather an inability to transfer a number across technological platform boundaries.
"This has occasionally happened in the past, at times because HFC network boundaries don’t map precisely to Telstra local-exchange boundaries. I don’t have all the details of Fernando’s service and circumstances so can’t comment in any detail on the specific case."
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman ducked the question. "This is a question better put to the ACMA, they have a raft of information on this subject," a spokesman said in response to a query, providing a link to material on ACMA's website that provided information on many things, but not on the subject in question.
Telstra ported Fernando's number after about three months of back-and-forth, characterised by the usual inefficiency that anyone who has dealt with the country's biggest telco should be familiar with.
But the question still remains: why was Telstra able to do something that Optus could not? Fernando (and iTWire too) would love to have an answer.