AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which last week received an inquiry request from the Federal Communications Commission regarding consumer complaints related to its local number portability efforts, said it has implemented software improvements that allow number porting to and from the carrier “in times on par with other carriers-in some cases in just a few hours.”
“Unfortunately, the first group of customers who have tried moving their wireless numbers to a different carrier have had a frustrating experience,” said Michael Keith, president of mobility services at AT&T Wireless. “AT&T Wireless has certainly not been satisfied with the performance of our porting systems in the first few weeks of the LNP process, and we regret inconveniencing our customers.”
The carrier noted problems with its software in acknowledging requests from other carriers to move a customer’s number that eventually created a bottleneck in the system.
“As a result of changes we made in conjunction with the software provider, we are now responding to more than three-quarters of these requests in 30 minutes or less,” Keith noted.
While taking some of the blame for the porting difficulties, AT&T Wireless also placed some of the hardship on its competitors, which it said experienced periodic outages in the weeks prior to the implementation of LNP, inhibiting the ability of AT&T Wireless’ vendor to test its software.
“We have identified and begun to solve the problems affecting AT&T Wireless and have improved the customer experience as a result,” Keith added. “Neither we nor our industry have all the issues licked yet, but we are making steady, solid progress in these early days of an unprecedented process.”
Analysts have noted that AT&T Wireless used a different vendor to handle its porting system than its five nationwide competitors, which all reportedly relied on Telecommunications Services Inc. to provide their porting services. AT&T Wireless was also reportedly hindered by a software glitch dating back to Nov. 1 that hampered the carrier’s ability to access information for its GSM customers and delayed its ability to sign up additional subscribers to the network.
