Number Portability To Get Limited Email Portability

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Cell phone portability to address e-mail issue
Four major domestic cell phone service providers are discussing the introduction of a new service for subscribers who switch carriers to automatically forward e-mails sent to old addresses to the relevant new addresses, sources said Monday. The four carriers...aim to reach an agreement within the current fiscal year, the sources said...The new service likely will be provided to people who switch providers under the number portability system for a fixed period of time. The four providers also plan to expand text messaging services, which use phone numbers instead of e-mail addresses to send messages. Until now these services have been available only among subscribers of the same carrier, but they will be made available to subscribers of other providers too, the sources said...more...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Why the fuck is it that in Japan you've only been able to send number to number text messages to people with same carrier anyway? Everywhere else I've been in the world it's the norm to be able to send a message to any cell phone number. I guess it's like ATM integration. These fucking assholes can't do anything right.