LNP lined up for speed boost

House and Senate members are nudging the Federal Communications Commission to approve by month’s end a rule to speed up local number portability processing, a move that wireless providers say is necessary because of delays encountered by landline customers who want to keep their phone number when they switch to cellular service.
While wireline porting can take several days, wireless operators fiercely competing against each other can transfer a subscriber’s telephone number from one wireless carrier to another within hours.
“It is unacceptable that with all the advances in technology, the wireline porting interval has remained at four business days for more than 10 years. We believe these long delays deter competition that the 1996 [telecom] act aimed to promote,” stated nearly a dozen members of the House in a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
The FCC last year, responding to cellular industry complaints, ruled LNP validation for a simple number port should be limited to four fields: the 10-digit telephone number; the customer account number; 5-digit ZIP code; and a pass code, if applicable. Telecom carriers originally were required to comply with that rule by early February, but the deadline was extended to July 31.
The FCC also tentatively concluded simple ports should be completed within 48 hours. The latter action was prompted by T-Mobile USA Inc.’s and Sprint Nextel Corp.’s petition to forbid delays or obstruction in porting wireline numbers to wireless carriers. Now, cellphone operators and some lawmakers want the FCC to close the deal by taking final action on the 48-hour rule.
“As new forms of voice competition from cable and wireless providers have grown, they have raised new portability issues,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Vice Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in a letter to Martin. “To address these challenges and ensure that consumers can benefit fully from intermodal competition, without the cost, inconvenience and loss of identity that come from changing telephone numbers, we introduced S. 1769, the Same Number Act. This legislation would amend the Communications Act by requiring the commission to establish number portability performance standards for all voice service providers.”
The two lawmakers said that while the FCC has made progress to level the playing field on LNP, more work is needed.
At a recent press briefing, Martin strongly suggested the agency is ready to address that very issue.
“I think it would be a good thing for the commission to try to address, to harmonize our local number portability [guidelines] so the amount of time of taking a number from carrier to carrier is shortened and consistent from platform to platform,” Martin told reporters.
Martin said he was not sure when the FCC might take further action on LNP, but noted it could be soon.