WASHINGTON-CenturyTel Inc. has agreed to pay the Federal Communications Commission $100,000 and set up procedures and systems to properly route ported wireless numbers, according to a consent decree released by the FCC Monday.
“The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association thinks it is a very important decision for competition. It is absolutely necessary to provide customers with the benefits of local number portability. It is also a reminder to state regulators who are considering waivers that the rural local exchange carriers will have to upgrade their networks to support wireless LNP. These upgrade costs can be added to bills as surcharges so rural customers will be paying for it so they should receive the full benefits of intermodal porting,” said Michael Altschul, CTIA senior vice president and general counsel.
In May, the FCC proposed fining CenturyTel $100,000 for not routing ported wireless numbers. The commission 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. By agreeing to the fine, CenturyTel did not admit to any wrongdoing.
CenturyTel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FCC has encouraged state regulators not to grant waivers to rural wireline companies, arguing that the benefits of competition outweighed the harm done to wireline carriers but has also said that state regulators may determine whether the costs of implementing intermodal porting outweigh the benefits.
While the FCC instituted wireline LNP years ago, carriers were not required to upgrade their switches until competition appeared in their service areas. 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 began porting May 24 unless state regulators gave the rural wireline carriers waivers.
The Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telephone Companies and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association have challenged the FCC’s intermodal porting rules. Oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has been scheduled for November.
