WASHINGTON-The wireless industry got an unlikely ally in its fight to postpone wireless local number portability when three wireline trade associations sent a letter to Capitol Hill saying that because various implementation issues have not been resolved, chaos will ensue if the Nov. 24 WLNP deadline is not postponed.
“We are mindful that the WLNP deadline has already been postponed several times. Given the long list of issues to be addressed by the Federal Communications Commission, however, proceeding with the current deadline would be a serious mistake for it would invite chaos into what should otherwise be an orderly implementation process. The only real deadline for WLNP implementation should be at the point in time at which the FCC effectively addresses the foregoing implementation issues. Any other deadline would amount to little more than a deadline for a deadline’s sake and is likely to do nothing more than spark another round of industry disputes and consumer confusion and frustration,” wrote the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, the United States Telecom Association and the Western Alliance.
The letter was sent to the leadership of both the House and Senate Commerce Committees.
The wireline and wireless industries have been at odds over wireless LNP with many in the wireline industry objecting to a proposal by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association to allow wireline-wireless porting outside of rate centers. A rate center is a wireline geographic distinction designed by state regulators. Currently, wireline carriers have to port a phone number only within the same rate center. Wireline customers leaving a rate center are not allowed to take their numbers with them. Because the wireless industry is not based on rate centers, CTIA estimates that only one in eight rate centers would be eligible for porting. CTIA has urged the FCC to require wireline-to-wireless porting regardless of whether the wireless carrier is physically located in the central office servicing a rate center.
Rural wireless carriers have also worried that if the rate center rules are changed they will lose customers to nationwide players.
CTIA has said the FCC must rule before Labor Day on this and other WLNP implementation issues, but the wireline trade associations warned that whatever rules the FCC comes up with, regardless of when they are released, will still be appealed and thus not be effective Nov. 24.
