WASHINGTON-Local number portability lobbying has been fast and furious of late as the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association tries to get legislation passed to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing the implementation mandate.
To counteract CTIA, a coalition of consumer advocates and state regulators sent a letter to senators urging them to reject CTIA’s efforts. “The wireless industry continues to engage in efforts to obscure, delay and confuse consumers and regulatory authorities regarding an important means of promoting competition and improving service quality in the wireless marketplace. Unfortunately, the wireless industry has yet to accept the fact that the FCC, state commissions, and consumers believe that wireless LNP has significant public-interest benefits,” reads the letter signed by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, AARP, Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates and the e-Commerce and Telecommunications Users Group.
The letter was targeted at senators who were expected to vote on Thursday on amendments meant to delay the implementation of wireless LNP. Such an amendment did not come up for a vote, but the Senate Commerce Committee will have another crack this Thursday when the committee again meets to consider various pieces of legislation, including a bill to re-authorize the FCC.
“NARUC and consumer groups throughout the country have been saying for seven years that wireless telephone customers should be able to keep their telephone number if they switch carriers. No one can seriously dispute the facts: LNP is in the best interest of consumers, LNP clearly promotes competition on the basis of price and service quality, and LNP preserves telephone numbers,” said Robert Nelson, chairman of the NARUC telecom committee and a member of the Michigan Public Service Commission.
The letter sets out to respond to various myths it said the industry is passing around Capitol Hill. These myths include the cost of implementation. While the industry indicates it is costly, the consumer and other trade lobbying groups said they believe the wireless industry has already spent the money to implement wireless LNP, and in some cases, is recovering those costs through line items on customer bills.
CTIA is not relying only on Congress to relieve the wireless industry of the LNP mandate. On June 16, CTIA was joined by Cingular Wireless L.L.C., AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Alltel Communications Inc. in urging the FCC to rescind the mandate based on the argument that language in the Communications Act only applied to local exchange carriers. This argument is part of a procedural process to get the mandate overturned.
Several procedural issues must be resolved before wireless LNP can be implemented. The FCC took a step toward solving some of the implementation questions, including whether a carrier must receive a bona fide request from a carrier before it must port numbers to that carrier. The agency left it to state regulators to decide on a case-by-case basis if a BFR had not been received. This examination would be based on whether consumers want LNP.
“Since all of the major carriers have already filed their bona fide requests, this is a good measured response to the issues that were presented,” said James Bradford Ramsay, NARUC general counsel. “Giving the states authority in certain circumstances to require a major carrier to provide LNP is a neat solution to a difficult problem.”
“I, for one, urge state commissioners to step in and set new rules if there is evidence of consumer demand for [LNP] that is not being met through carrier requests. As in any other competitive market, consumers who are unhappy or dissatisfied with a provider should be able to pack up and bring their business elsewhere,” said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps.
