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With the opening up of the mainland communications market, the number porting service came into being, and consumers should be allowed to enjoy the right to choose. However, in the actual operation of operators, the number porting service is cumbersome and the queuing time is long, which brings inconvenience to the user experience of consumers.
A citizen in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, complained about his experience of unsuccessful number porting for two months, and questioned the operator's deliberate difficulty in preventing the loss of users. This reflects that the competition in the mainland communications market is still insufficient, and users still face many obstacles when switching operators.
On April 28, Mr. Li, a citizen of Taizhou, handled the number porting business from China Mobile to China Telecom for his wife, and ran 6 times to the mobile business hall, which took nearly 2 months, and has not been successfully handled so far.
Mr. Li said that they started to apply for the process in early March, and waited in line at the business hall in the center of Taizhou and then in Wenling City, and each time they were told that they needed to return to queue up again. For this reason, Mr. Li got up at 4 a.m. several times to take a taxi to the mobile business hall in Wenling City to queue up, but he still could not complete the process in one day.
Mr. Li questioned that the mobile business hall deliberately caused trouble, only opened one handling window every day, and each customer took one hour, resulting in a large number of people in line and too long a queue. He believes that this is a deliberate effort by mobile to prevent user churn.
Indeed, in the context of insufficient competition in the mainland communications market, major operators want to retain users as much as possible, and increasing the difficulty of number portability has become one of their means. However, this is not conducive to the rights and interests of users, and it is not in line with policy guidance.
In fact, the high cost of network porting is also an important reason why number porting is difficult. According to the regulations, the number porting fee for voice package users is 50 yuan; The number porting fee for data package users is 100 yuan.
For most users, this fee is not cheap. In addition, number porting also requires multiple procedures to be handled at the same time, including card switching, business processing, tariff conversion, etc., which is more cumbersome. As a result, some users choose to forgo number porting.
In the face of user complaints, the mobile customer service said that the number porting business is complicated and requires a detailed explanation by professionals, so the processing time is different for each customer and cannot be shortened. But in fact, operators can take more flexible measures to make it truly convenient for consumers:
Increase the publicity of number porting business, and actively inform users of procedures and precautions to reduce user confusion. Provide off-site services such as online self-service, and users can submit information online.
Increase the handling window, expand the handling personnel, and improve the handling efficiency. For peak periods, additional windows can be opened temporarily. Simplify the business process and set up a "one-stop" service, where users can complete all procedures from one window.
Appropriately reduce the cost of number porting, and encourage users to choose their own carriers. Strengthen customer service training to improve work efficiency and service attitude. It is strictly forbidden for business handlers to dissuade users from transferring to the network. Establish a supervision mechanism for network transfer operations, and strictly check whether there are any difficult users.
If the operator is sincere in serving users, it can take the above measures, instead of refusing to make improvements just because the business is complicated and blaming the user. In fact, the cumbersome business process is also deliberately set by the operator to make it more difficult for users to transfer to the network.
In recent years, driven by policies, the telecommunications market has been gradually liberalized, and number portability services have become more and more popular. In 2021, about 170 million users in mainland China handled number porting, a year-on-year increase of nearly 50%.
This shows that there is a growing demand for users to choose their own operators. Major operators should follow the general trend and truly respect the rights and interests of users, rather than deliberately making things difficult.
The regulatory authorities should also further strengthen the supervision of number portability, formulate detailed operational specifications, strictly implement the provisions on number portability, improve the channels for user complaints and complaints, and seriously investigate and deal with operators' behavior of restricting user portability.
At the same time, it will further reduce the cost of number porting and promote network interconnection between different operators, so that users can truly enjoy a level playing field.
Operators still have various light and dark means to restrict users' independent choices. In addition to increasing the difficulty of number porting, there are also network interoperability that only complies with minimum standards, high tariff promotions, etc.
The cost of switching operators is too high, including not only the cost of money, but also the cost of learning and time. This limits the choice of most users.
The government's supervision of telecommunications companies is insufficient, and some illegal operations emerge one after another. Regulatory authorities should earnestly strengthen supervision.
Policy formulation and adjustment have not been rapid enough, and some policy gaps need to be filled as soon as possible. For example, the threshold for network transfer has been lowered, and the long-term mechanism for market supervision has been improved.
The awareness of consumer rights protection is weak, and there is a lack of awareness of active rights protection in the face of unreasonable practices of operators. Some factors other than industry competition also restrict competition, such as preferential policies for enterprises and institutions, user data barriers, etc.
In order to truly enhance the level of competition in the mainland's telecommunications market, a great deal of work needs to be done in all aspects. On the issue of the difficulty of number portability, the regulatory authorities should continue to improve their policies, and operators should take the initiative to improve their practices to effectively protect consumers' right to choose. The number porting service also needs to be continuously improved in practice, so that users can truly enjoy the benefits and convenience brought by the level playing field without barriers.
Statement: This article has been opened for rights protection on the whole network, and plagiarism is not allowed, and offenders will be investigated. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!