Cellular telephones have become a little more mobile today as a regulatory change makes wireless phone numbers as portable as the tiny devices that place the calls.

"It's a way of making the customer's life a lot simpler," Peter Barnes, CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), told CTV Newsnet on Wednesday.

Wireless number portability (WNP) is the result of 18 months of work by Canada's cellular carriers after the federal government asked the industry to make it happen.

With the technical details ironed out, telephone customers are now able to transfer their service from one company to another without having to change phone numbers.

Canada is only the second country in the world to offer "complete wireless-to-wireless, wireless-to-wireline and wireline-to-wireless portability," the CWTA said in a written statement Wednesday.

Until now, cellular phone numbers were controlled and assigned by the companies and most customers were locked into term contracts.

Wireless number portability will allow customers to shop around for a better service plan and price without having to change their phone number.

Barnes said one study conducted for his association indicated about 850,000 people would take advantage of the new rules in the first year.

The wireless industry has about 18 million cellphone customers, he said.

"That number was based on their assessment of international experience and the Canadian marketplace. But we've seen it very low in certain countries and we've seen it considerably higher," he said.

Observers expect number portability will spark a round of intense competition in Canada's cellular industry, which is dominated by major players Bell Canada, Rogers Wireless and Telus Mobility.

Asked if any companies would be at a disadvantage as a result, Barnes said: "I think the same is true for all companies. In a competitive market, you have to be on your toes."

The customers will decide who is successful, he said.

Government and industry priority

The federal government made wireless number portability a priority in the Feb. 2005 budget. In April of that year the CWTA said that the country's wireless companies reached an agreement to make portability happen.

By December, the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) weighed-in, setting the March 14, 2007 deadline. The CRTC said that customers in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec should be able to switch to any phone service provider, including traditional wireline companies, and keep their number by that date.

The wireless industry disagreed and said they would offer portability nationwide.

"It was just a month later (after the 2005 federal budget) the industry announced that they were implementing it," CWTA spokesperson Marc Choma told CTV.ca.

"When we did get the CRTC decision in December we thought 'no,' this has to be something that is available to all Canadians and it has to be all at the same time," Choma added.

The only cases where people cannot move their phone numbers will be in communities where competing carriers do not exist or local phone number portability has not yet been implemented.

WNP facts

• Points to bear in mind when switching providers (Source -- CWTA):
• Portability exists only in areas with more than one provider.
• Changing carriers means getting a new phone from the new provider.
• Penalty clauses may apply to get out of a contract.
• Only active phone numbers can be ported.
• Companies may charge a fee to accept an existing phone number.
• Only the phone number -- not services such as voicemail -- can be transferred.
• Switching entails taking on a new rate plan.
• Fax numbers, but not pagers, can be switched to a new carrier.