WASHINGTON—More than 30 members of Congress have sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission siding with the bulk of the wireless industry in opposing the imposition of wireless local number portability.
“It is not prudent for the commission to require wireless carriers to comply with thousand-block pooling and number portability simultaneously. A requirement that porting and [LNP] be deployed simultaneously raises significant network reliability issues. The [LNP] mandate for wireless carriers should be delayed while number pooling implementation occurs on schedule,” said the lawmakers led by the leadership of the House Commerce Committee.
The congressional letter was sent as the commissioners’ offices are negotiating on how to handle a petition from Verizon Wireless Inc. to remove the requirement that wireless LNP be implemented before Nov. 24.
While FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps told reporters on Thursday he has not voted on the wireless LNP item, his aid Paul Margie said the issue was being discussed among the commissioners’ offices.
Copps seemed to be leading towards supporting a delay in deploying LNP even though he tried to back away from this position.
“I think there are ways to get this done in a reasonable amount of time. There are a lot of issues out there for the wireless industry right now, for instance, E911 is certainly important, number pooling and so on. They are under some pressure to be more consumer friendly. There are high expectations for the industry. … I have not said anything about Nov. 24. [I want to] look at the record and assess the burdens, the costs and see if there really is a legitimate reason to extend the deadline on that. There are good arguments for going ahead on that basis but I am willing to look at arguments to the contrary before making a final decision,” said Copps during his monthly press briefing.
The lawmakers and Copps both noted that wireless carriers are currently required to upgrade their networks to comply with various mandates including enhanced 911 and number pooling.
With the exception of Leap Wireless International Inc., the wireless industry has mounted an aggressive campaign at the FCC to have the regulators put off the Nov. 24 deadline for implementing wireless LNP. The campaign began last summer when Verizon Wireless requested the FCC remove the requirement entirely.
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.
