Subject: [NEXTEL-1] USTA Heads To Court Ahead Of FCC's LNP Stay Denial

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 11:21:20 -0500

USTA Heads To Court Ahead Of FCC's LNP Stay Denial
By Mark Rockwell

WASHINGTON -- The legal battle over the FCC's local number portability
rules has turned into a last-minute cliffhanger.

In rapid-fire legal filings yesterday, the FCC and wireline carriers
vied for control over Monday's wireline-to-wireless LNP deadline. Last
night, the commission shot down wireline carriers' request that the
Nov. 24 wireline-to-wireless LNP deadline be put off, setting up a
possible court battle over the rules.

Making good on a threat in its petition to the FCC, the United States
Telecom Association filed an additional petition yesterday afternoon
at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
asking that the court review and intervene in the FCC's order. When it
filed at the FCC on Nov. 18, USTA said it would file in the federal
courts by yesterday if the FCC didn't resolve outstanding questions.

This morning, USTA voiced its disappointment with the FCC and said it
had sent the issue to the court. "The commission's decision last night
is yet another blow to consumer choice. We're disappointed that the
FCC chose to ignore the harm to competition from its order on number
porting between wireline and wireless carriers.

"Yesterday afternoon, USTA filed a petition asking the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review the FCC's order and we believe
that the court should intervene to ensure that consumers benefit from
full competition for telecom services," said USTA spokeswoman Allison
Remson.

USTA, which quietly filed its petition at the appeals court apparently
just after 3 p.m. yesterday, sought a review of the rules but stopped
short of asking for a halt.

That likely means Monday's implementation date isn't in jeopardy,
analysts say. "At the end of the day, they didn't seek a stay as they
think it's not worth it. I wouldn't expect expedited treatment of this
by the court. Nothing happens on Monday except porting," said Rebecca
Arbogast, analyst at Legg Mason.

In its ruling on the USTA petition last night, the FCC denied the
organization's two-day-old request for a stay in the rules. USTA had
argued that the rules, which make wireline carriers port to wireless
carriers in areas the two share geographically instead of tying the
requirements to wireline rate centers, put wireline carriers at a
competitive disadvantage. The organization also said the FCC's
wireline-to-wireless LNP rules didn't strictly follow procedural
filing laws that require the agency to allow issues to be publicly
vetted and commented on.

In its denial, the commission said the wireline-to-wireless rules
didn't challenge wireline carriers with a "new obligation." It added
that CTIA had asked the commission back in January for a ruling that
wireline carriers were obligated to port to wireless carriers in areas
where service areas of the two overlapped. The commission said it
issued an order resulting from that request on Nov. 10 clarifying
outstanding questions.

The FCC's denial added that wireline carriers were far from
competitively hamstrung by the rules. It said porting is two-way
street. A "wireline carrier may compete to win back a customer who
ported his home telephone number to a wireless carrier, provided that
customer has remained in the same location."

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