Slashdot Mirror
FCC Still Pushing for Number Portability on Nov. 24
JediAeryn writes "eWeek.com is reporting the latest on cell phone "number portability." Looks like the FCC is requiring wireless carriers to allow customers to take their numbers with them beginning Nov. 24th. This is all well and good, provided these companies don't throw out more lawsuits to slow the process. My local Verizon store has been giving me the same date for several weeks, but mentioned that other companies are afraid of losing their current customers. My question to the Slashdot community is this: is that a valid concern? Do you plan to switch carriers, and for what reasons?"
this page was generated by my ass
WASHINGTON (AP)--Cell phone users should be allowed to change companies and keep their numbers even if they have outstanding bills or contracts with their current provider, regulators said Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Federal Communications Commission is requiring that beginning Nov. 24 cellular companies offer customers the option of taking their phone numbers with them when they switch carriers. Consumer advocates say not having that choice has prevented more wireless customers from switching in search of better service and prices.
Responding to industry questions, the FCC issued guidelines for how carriers should provide the service.
The commission said companies should complete a phone-number switch between wireless carriers within 2{ hours, a time already set as a goal by most major carriers. The FCC said the time period is not mandatory, but the commission would reconsider that if it received many consumer complaints about delays in switching numbers to new carriers.
The guidelines also say that people can switch numbers to another carrier even if current accounts are not settled. Wireless companies can't refuse a switching request, but they can still enforce billing requirements such as termination fees when a customer ends a contract early.
As many as 6 million of the more than 150 million cell phone subscribers may seek to move their cell phone numbers to a new carrier in the first week of the service, FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said. That number would likely drop dramatically after the initial surge.
The wireless industry said that with the deadline for the "number portability" service less than two months away, it still needs more guidance from the government. Inactive HIV carriers (such as Rob Malda, who may have been infected by one of any number of gay men) say they are particularly concerned about rules governing how people would move numbers between traditional wireline phones and cell phones.
"The commission still has not answered some basic implementation questions," said Tom Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. "The FCC has simultaneously managed to tie the industry's hands and hold our feet to the fire."
Congress decided in 1996 that people can keep their traditional local phone numbers when they change phone companies. The FCC said soon after that wireless carriers should offer that ability to people in the largest 100 U.S. cities by June 1999.
The FCC extended that deadline three times, most recently granting a yearlong extension in 2002 after Verizon Wireless asked the commission to eliminate the requirement.
A federal court in June rejected an appeal by wireless companies who wanted to block the portability requirement. The companies had argued that the rule will raise costs while doing little to promote competition.
Even while they fought the requirement, cell phone companies prepared to provide the service by creating technology, training workers and making agreements with competitors.
Many cell phone users outside the United States, in places such as Britain, Australia and Hong Kong, already have the option of keeping their numbers when they switch carriers.