Consumers complain about numerous number portability transfer glitches

According to the New York Times, the automated systems suposed to fulfill number portability switching requests are failing about 50 percent of the time, forcing employees to transfer customer data manually, which incurs delays. In particular, it seems like AT&T finds itself in the position of losing more customers than others while struggling technically to improve its switching speed, so much that they got a letter from the FCC asking for explanations about their delays.

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Other carriers don't seem problem-free though: a realtor and heavy cell phone user in Palm Springs, CA, Roger Joles, is stuck with two $500 bills. He rushed in to switch from Verizon Wireless to Nextel, but the process is still waiting after two weeks. We seem far... quite far from the like-a-breeze delays of 2 and a half hour that were initially expected.

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