Independence day

Of all the odd relationships to feel trapped in,surely the oddest must be to be bound,hand-and-foot,to your telephone company. After all,arent we told,endlessly and loudly,that weve enormous amounts of competition in our cellphone sector? That we have cheap calls,excellent deals,wonderful coverage,world-class technology? Yes,perhaps. But the moment were told we also benefit from competition,its time to start questioning. Because,while nothing technically stopped you from moving from one phone company to another,something practically did: the fact that we would leave our numbers behind.

There are two types of people,surely. Some of us keep changing our numbers,perhaps every time we lose our phones,sending out SMSes to our entire address books every few months. Free spirits,these tech-wanderers. But so many of us are the opposite,convinced that if we change our numbers well disappear into some nethermost hell reserved for the disconnected and offline,and thus grimly hanging on to numbers we acquired a near-decade ago,perhaps,with the phone company that granted us those precious identifying digits hanging equally grimly on to us. The essence of competition is mobility. You need to be able to threaten your company with anothers offers. You need to warn them you can play the field,or youll be stuck in an unhappy marriage.

So the decree from the government liberalising divorce between you and your cellphone company is something to be welcomed. Now we can suggest to unhelpful helplines that well seek another company and back it up. Theyll have to take us seriously; and that means were going to get even better service than before.