Subject: [NEXTEL-1] NEWS ALERT -- Largent: CTIA 'Embraces' LNP

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 19:38:58 -0500

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Wireless Week
Breaking News Alert
November 5, 2003
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Largent: CTIA 'Embraces' LNP
By Mark Rockwell

WASHINGTON -- Steve Largent, CTIA's new president and CEO, is up to
his ears in transition this week as he takes the helm of the
organization from long-time association stalwart Tom Wheeler.

Largent took over bright and early Monday and found himself staring
down the barrel of one of the biggest issues yet to face the wireless
industry: local number portability. Wireless and wireline carriers
have to transition to porting each other's customers on Nov. 24. The
FCC hasn't yet given out the details of some wireline-to-wireless
porting issues for which CTIA asked.

Largent also faces a transitioning wireless industry whose members
aren't always in complete agreement on many issues. Nextel
Communications Inc. backs a spectrum swap proposal that CTIA opposes.
Verizon Wireless started backing LNP last summer, before other
carriers were ready to fully embrace it.

CTIA itself is in the process of packing up its headquarters and
moving to new digs at 1400 16th St. NW in Washington -- a few blocks
away from its current location at 1250 Connnecticut Ave. The move of
80 employees and corporate belongings must be completed by this
January.

Largent, a former wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks and U.S.
Congressman, is used to the pressure and seems to be taking it in
stride in his first few days at CTIA and plans on moving forward
effectively for his membership.

In an interview with Wireless Week today, Largent says CTIA has
accepted that LNP is "inevitable and is embracing it." That embrace
does come with some questions, however. Primarily, the issue of
wireline-to-wireless porting, which Wheeler initially raised with the
FCC. The commission has not yet issued clarification of what's
expected from wireline carriers porting their numbers to wireless
carriers, although the agency plans to issue those guidelines in the
next few days.

That the deadline for LNP is only weeks away is cold comfort to
Largent, however. He says his organization is working to get consumers
up to speed as soon as possible on what they can do to ease into LNP,
but his worst fear is that wireline-to-wireless LNP could get
sidetracked by wireline interests. The uneven implementation of
wireline-to-wireless and wireless-to-wireless LNP could mean wireless
companies could see their stock devalued as churn among wireless
carriers increases, but wireline customers stay put as those rules are
fine-tuned.

Another regulatory issue that shines a spotlight on a larger, more
fundamental, question for CTIA is Nextel's plans to swap spectrum in
the 800 MHz band. CTIA is at odds with Nextel, as the organization
backs a plan that seeks a case-by-case approach to eliminating
spectrum interference among carriers and emergency service providers.

The problem of being at odds with members increases drastically as the
industry becomes even more competitive, he says. Interests splinter
and priorities change as carriers fight in an ever-more competitive
arena. The pressure to adhere to a single party line is easy in less
competitive environments but isn't productive in a competitive one, he
says. "We can oppose policy without poking a member in the eye," he
says, a situation CTIA found itself in this summer when Verizon
Wireless began backing LNP. "I don't agree with my wife all the time,
but that doesn't mean I'll divorce her," he says with a smile.

In addition to splintering corporate interests, Largent says the
regulatory battleground is also about to splinter. State public
utility commissions look to be the next venue for regulatory battles,
he says, and CTIA is thinking hard about how best to manage the fight.

Largent says even with the prodigious regulatory and internal
challenges facing his new organization, he relishes the time at which
he's taken on its leadership.

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