Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC to require intermodal porting

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2003 08:40:13 -0500

FCC to require intermodal porting
By Heather Forsgren Weaver
November 05 13:39:00, 2003

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission is likely to require
wireline carriers to port customers’
telephone numbers to wireless carriers even if the wireless carrier does
not have a switch in the wireline carrier’s rate
center.

Both a fact sheet released by the FCC Tuesday and comments made by FCC
Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy
Wednesday morning point to a wireless win in this debate.

Abernathy said that she favors requiring the intermodal porting because
it would benefit consumers and that is the point
of the local number portability rules.

“The whole LNP requirement is to benefit consumers,” Abernathy told
reporters during a press breakfast. “You should
satisfy the customer desire.”

Wireline carriers have complained that it is not fair to make them port
outside a rate center—a geographic distinction
used to determine the amount to charge for completing a call. Currently,
wireline carriers do not port outside rate
centers because this is considered geographic porting. The confusion
occurred when the Cellular Telecommunications &
Internet Association pointed out earlier this year that if the FCC does
not allow out-of-rate-center porting, only one in
eight customers would be eligible to cut the cord.

Abernathy questioned, however, how many cord cutters there would be
compared with those wireless customers just
wishing to switch providers. Wireless-to-wireless porting is “where most
of the customer demand seems to be,” she
said.

According to Abernathy, the FCC is looking to require out-of-rate-center
porting as long as the area code remains the
same and the wireless carrier’s service area covers the rate center.

Under these rules—which are expected to released as soon as this Friday
but would be effective Nov. 24—a wireline
customer could cut the cord and take his number to a wireless carrier
serving his house, but the wireline customer could
not take his number to a wireless carrier serving a different area of
the country.

What is not likely to be included is the tricky question of toll charges
that some wireline carriers may try to charge if a call
is delivered to a number that formerly would have incurred charges but
now does not because it is within a wireless
carrier’s local calling area. This issue impacts some of the edge areas
of the largest metropolitan service areas, but is
more prevalent in rural areas.

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=15808

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