As I’ve been realizing lately, nothing is more hilarious than real life.

We all know that we can now keep our cellular numbers if we switch carriers. But I think it’s funny how congress can draft a law, the cellular/PCS carriers fight it like mad, but when the law is passed the carriers all act like it was their idea.

(Aside: I’m think I’m against a law like this because it’s government interference in the market…yet it seems to increase competition between carriers. My instincts and my principles tell me that the market would have been fine without the law and if consumers would have demanded it they would have gotten it. So what we need is more brass for the consumers not more laws to protect them.)

But it’s funny either way.

<Thinking>

Ah yes, it seems that one should stick to his principles and he’ll come out okay in the end. My instincts said that any law congress passes can’t increase overall competition in the market.

Now that congress have passed a law that says a cellular carrier must allow you to take your cellular number with you when you leave, they have not given you more options. They have taken an option away from you. Counter-intuitive? Yes. The fact is that all along you could have negotiated for the right to take your number with you. It just wasn’t economically viable for the carriers to offer that option and not enough people were demanding it, or willing to pay the price. Now, I can’t sign a contract with a carrier that says they own my number. It’s actually one less option for the consumer and congress has taken away a small amount of my freedom.

Explanation: In an ideal world, Cellular companies would offer both types of service so they could charge more for accounts that wanted to take numbers with them and less for the accounts that wanted numbers locked in. If consumers used market channels they could achieve this. But I think we’ve ceased to think that way. Or maybe ceased to think.

(somebody correct me on this if I’m wrong)