WASHINGTON—More than 30 members of Congress have sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) siding with the bulk of the wireless industry in opposing the mandatory implementation of wireless local number portability.
The congressional letter was sent as the commissioners’ offices are negotiating on how to handle a petition from Verizon Wireless to remove the requirement that wireless LNP be implemented before Nov. 24. Wireless LNP is the ability for a user to keep his number when he changes service providers. It is generally available when customers switch wireline carriers.
The FCC upset the wireless industry in late 2000 when it said that in addition to LNP, carriers would be required to participate in number pooling as of Nov. 24.
Number block pooling would change the way numbers are allocated and could slow the exhaustion of area codes. Today, numbers are allocated in 10,000-number blocks, but some carriers do not use all of the numbers in the blocks they are allocated. A nationwide plan is being developed that would allow carriers to turn back unused blocks of numbers, which then could be allocated to other carriers.
