WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission could fine CenturyTel Inc. $100,000 for not routing ported wireless numbers.
“Regardless of the status of a carrier’s obligation to provide number portability, all carriers have the duty to route calls to ported numbers. In other words, carriers must ensure that their call routing procedures do not result in dropped calls to ported numbers,” said the FCC. “During the relevant period, however, not all of CenturyTel’s switches were LNP-capable. CenturyTel stated that as of Feb. 24, more than two months after the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau launched its investigation, it was not LNP-capable in 20 switches in the state of Washington.”
The FCC said CenturyTel, a local exchange carrier, did not route calls from its subscribers to ported wireless numbers, relying instead on the wireless carrier to route the calls.
“The record is undisputed that where CenturyTel did not have LNP-capable switches and had a direct trunk with the porting wireless provider, CenturyTel default routed all local wireless calls to the porting wireless carrier. Unless this wireless carrier performed the database query, the CenturyTel customer’s call was dropped,” said the FCC.
The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association highlighted the proposed fine at a press conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the upcoming May 24 deadline for all carriers in all markets to have the ability to port numbers.
“CenturyTel is a local exchange carrier-a wireline company. They did not have to upgrade their switches to port wireline LNP, but when wireless carriers started porting the FCC has made clear with today’s proposed fine that CenturyTel, and all wireline companies, have to do the routing of wireline to wireless by querying a database and having the LEC switch route the call to the appropriate wireless carrier,” said Michael Altschul, CTIA senior vice president and general counsel.
The FCC rejected CenturyTel’s claim that its rules were ambiguous, noting that last year CenturyTel asked for a rule change.
“In support of its position that the FCC’s requirements are ambiguous, CenturyTel relies on its own prior requests for rule changes and third-party statements,” said the commission. “CenturyTel asked the FCC to require a wireless customer’s former wireless service provider to perform the local number portability database query and transit the call to the new wireless service provider without charge to the LEC. Notably, CenturyTel did not therein contend that the rule was ambiguous. CenturyTel merely asked the commission to change the current rule.”
Porting requests are expected to receive a boost on May 24 when the remaining one-third of consumers not covered by the original Nov. 24 LNP deadline for the nation’s top 100 metropolitan service areas are scheduled to be offered the ability to port their telephone numbers.
With the LNP deadline one week away, the wireless industry and policy-makers spent last week starting the process of educating consumers again about LNP.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell, reacting to a verbal report from three of his senior staff, said he was pleased with the way wireless LNP was going, noting he had ported a phone in less than an hour.
“I have done it,” said Powell. “It ported in one hour and by the way I wasn’t using my own name so no one had a `chairman’ flag go up I hope.”
Powell later filled reporters in on his porting experience. “I have done it twice so I am for two carriers and against two carriers,” he said. “No I really did it. My wife and son and I switched at a Circuit City and I switched my work phone. I am not going to say which carrier.”
During the staff report, the FCC reported that more than 2 million consumers ported their telephone numbers since wireless local number portability was implemented on Nov. 24, including both wireless-to-wireless porting and wireline-to-wireless porting. The commission noted 613,000 ports were requested last month between wireless carriers and another 49,000 requests were made between wireline and wireless operators. A total of 24,000 intermodal ports took place in January.
Altschul said the rise in intermodal ports may be due to some people switching their landline phone numbers in certain area codes-he specifically mentioned 212 for New York-to their mobile phone.
“We actually think, we don’t know, we think in markets like Manhattan where the 212 area code is so treasured there may be customers in codes like that who took advantage of the opportunity to do a little area-code arbitrage. Certainly in California there was a similar experience going on,” said Altschul.
But intermodal porting is also gaining popularity elsewhere. A rural wireless carrier that began porting customers in November told reporters on Thursday that 24 percent of its ports had come from wireline customers.
Terry Addington, president of First Cellular of Southern Illinois, said that porting customers had complained about rising wireline bills and said the mobility of wireless service prompted them to make the change.
Nationwide it is believed that intermodal porting accounts for less than 10 percent of all ports. “Intermodal-porting volume is low at this point,” said William Maher, chief of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau.
First Cellular’s Addington said only Verizon Wireless agreed to port with him before the May 24 deadline for rural WLNP and that after that date, he will still be unable to port with rural wireline carriers because Illinois state regulators gave them a 30-month waiver from the obligation to port numbers.
Intermodal porting could have a negative impact on rural wireline carriers, said George Reed-Dellinger of Washington Analysis.
“The potential churn and increased competition will only add to the continued uncertainty surrounding ongoing negotiations to restructure the rural telcos’ remaining profitable revenue streams-long-distance access and the Universal Service Fund,” said Reed-Dellinger.
The FCC on May 6 urged state regulators not to grant waivers to rural wireline companies, arguing that the benefits of competition outweighed the harm done to wireline carriers.
“When considering requests to waive these important, consumer-friendly obligations, states should remain mindful of the tremendous customer benefits that porting generates. I know that the National Association of State Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the FCC agree that the ability of wireless and wireline consumers to port their numbers remains central to producing competition, choice, lower costs and increased innovation. These benefits are particularly important in rural areas where competition may be less robust than in more urban markets,” wrote K. Dane Snowden, chief of the FCC’s Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau. “I encourage the state commissions to ensure that carriers seeking waivers demonstrate that they are on a path to compliance so that customers of these carriers will not be forever denied the rights their fellow consumers enjoy.”
While the FCC instituted wireline LNP years ago, carriers were not required to upgrade their switches until competition appeared in their service area. For many rural carriers, that competition did not come and so they were unprepared for wireless LNP. Rural carriers that served wireless carriers whose coverage area overlapped areas that implemented porting in November were given an extension until May, but all carriers and all markets should begin porting on May 24 unless state regulators give rural wireline carriers a waiver.
RCR Wireless News Reporter Dan Meyer contributed to this article.
