WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission said it has received 4,734 informal complaints about wireless local number portability as of Jan. 23.
Most complaints were about porting numbers between wireless carriers, while about 5 percent of the total complaints involved porting numbers from wireline to wireless carriers.
AT&T Wireless was cited in the most complaints with 2,297; Sprint PCS received 1,119 complaints; Verizon Wireless received 739; Cingular Wireless L.L.C. was mentioned in 699; T-Mobile USA Inc. received 625 complaints; Nextel Communications Inc. was cited in 332 complaints; Qwest Communications International Inc. got 195 complaints and Alltel Corp. got 119 complaints.
The FCC emphasized the number of complaints does not reflect the number of ports per carrier, and the wireless industry echoed the importance of that matter.
“The real question is 2,000 complaints out of how many ports and 4,000 out of how many?” asked Steve Zipperstein, general counsel and vice president of Verizon Wireless, at a press conference held shortly after the FCC released the numbers. “The complaints are coming way down. We have customers who have complained to us because their current carrier won’t let them out.”
