BY ALFRED SIEW

ONLY a tiny fraction of cellphone users have switched telecom operators of late, despite some of the fiercest competition for customers here in years.

About 6,500 have jumped ship since June 13, when the introduction of number portability triggered pitched battles among Singapore's three mobile phone companies.

These "switchers" make up less than 0.1 per cent of the holders of the country's six million mobile lines, said the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).

Number portability, which allows mobile owners to swop telcos while keeping their phone numbers, removes the biggest barrier to switching.

Up to 15 per cent of users are expected to make the jump by this time next year.

Despite the low customer turnover to date, full number portability has not been a failure, say analysts. Cellphone users have benefited from the discounts being dished out by telcos.

Mr Nathan Burley, an analyst at research house Ovum, said: "Given all the extra marketing from telcos, the number of people switching is small."

In recent weeks, telcos have given $500 to $600 discounts for popular phones if users sign a service contract.

Previously, this subsidy was about $300 to $400.

At the same time, telcos also rolled out the red carpet for switchers by waiving monthly subscriptions for up to six months.

Some are also trying to woo back former customers like Mr Ng Kee Haur. The 32-year-old, who works in the communications sector, decided to jump from SingTel to M1.

"They called me and offered nine months of free subscription, but I couldn't take it because I'd have to pay the penalty for having signed up with M1," he said.

Users who spoke to The Straits Times said they had few problems switching telcos, though some took longer than expected.

Staff errors at StarHub forced some users to wait two or three working days for their numbers to be changed over, instead of the expected one working day, the company said.

After signing up with a new telco, users remove their old SIM card at around midnight the next working day. The line may be cut for up to three hours. When the line is re-activated, users will switch to the new SIM card issued by their new telcos.

The IDA said telcos had chosen to switch over all numbers at night to minimise disruptions.

This is unlike places like the United States, where users are switched "on the fly" in a few minutes.

Consultant David Wong, 35, who switched telcos here, said he did not mind the disruption as he had been waiting for number portability for months.

"But it'll be even better if they could tell people what time the down-time would be, instead of just saying it is around midnight," he added.

Experts say full number portability can have varying effects.

In some countries, like Japan, aggressive price cuts by one telco, Softbank, led to many users switching quickly.

But in other places, like Australia, the effect was not as dramatic because telcos turned to less drastic measures like giving out freebies.

siewtha@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 12 July 2008.