Believe it or not, but the wireless number portablity is going to cost wireless carriers roughly $20 billion in first four years, this according to Austin, Texas-based market research group, IGilliotResearch. (Surely they need a better name.)

bq. The research firm predicts that the churn – that is the number of folks who switch from one carrier to another – is going to jump from one percent per annum to 10 percent per annum. If churn rates reach the worst case model, then the industry will be forced to consolidate, simply to spread the resulting cost of WNP over a larger base. “Nobody truly knows what the effect of WNP will be in the U.S.,” says Iain Gillott, founder and president of iGillottResearch Inc. “But few doubt that churn will increase as a result. The question is how big the increase will be and how the industry will react.”

To paraphrase CarrotTop, it is good for you, but not so good for them!