Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wireless Firms Still Fight Portable Phone Numbers

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2003 13:38:09 -0400

Wireless Carriers to Fight Number Portability in Court

Lawyers for CTIA and Verizon Wireless head to court April 15 to argue that the
U.S. Federal Communications Commission overstepped its authority when it
mandated that wireless carriers modify their networks so that subscribers can
keep their phone numbers when they change service providers. This number
portability mandate, designed to stimulate competition in the wireline market,
is
unnecessary in a market that is already fiercely competitive, wireless
companies argue. The estimated $1 billion that it will cost the wireless
industry
would be better spent enhancing coverage and services and meeting FCC
mandates such as wireless E911 location services, the companies say.
Consumer advocates argue that wireless subscribers are more likely to change
carriers if they can keep their wireless phone numbers. Currently, about a third

of all wireless subscribers change carriers each year. The FCC's number
portability ruling also requires that customers be able to keep their landline
phone numbers when they change to wireless phone service, a provision that
traditional phone companies, such as SBC Communications, are fighting.

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Wireless Firms Still Fight Portable Phone Numbers

By Christopher Stern
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 9, 2003; Page E01

Mobile phone companies are making a last stand to block a regulation that would
allow subscribers to keep their telephone
numbers when they switch wireless carriers.

Who retains control over the numbers is the latest test of government policy
governing competition in telecommunications.
Consumer advocates claim that wireless subscribers often are reluctant to switch
carriers because changing forces them to
inform friends, family members and acquaintances of their new numbers. They are
lobbying the Federal Communications
Commission to honor its Nov. 24 deadline for implementing the rule.

Wireless companies say the mandate will increase their costs and do little to
promote competition in an industry already
battered by a price war. Traditional phone companies, meanwhile, have joined the
fight out of concern that the new rules could
allow wireless companies to take customers from their wired networks.

The wireless industry's trade group, the Cellular Telecommunications and
Internet Association, will square off Tuesday against
the FCC in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where it will
argue that the agency overstepped its authority
when it approved the requirements.

Lawyers for the CTIA and Verizon Wireless claim the rule is unnecessary because
competition for the nation's 144 million
wireless subscribers remains robust. About 24 percent of all wireless
subscribers switched companies last year.

"Wireless is competitive enough," said Michael O'Connor, director of federal
regulatory policy and planning for Verizon
Communications Inc.

The court challenge is not expected to be decided until this summer, lawyers
involved in the case said. In the meantime, wireless
companies continue their fight against the rule at the agency, despite
statements from FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell
indicating that he will stand by the deadline.

The FCC has already delayed the rule three times after the industry complained
about how much it would cost them.

Mobile phone companies say the requirement will cost the industry $1 billion at
a time when it is trying to meet other FCC
mandates. Cell-phone companies, for example, are updating their networks to
allow emergency workers to find 911 callers by
tracing the signals from their phones.

"I would rather see our resources devoted to safety of life and protection of
property rather than addressing regulations of
convenience," said Brian Fontes, vice president for federal regulations for
Cingular Wireless.

He said Cingular has spent $250 million to prepare for the rule and will comply
with it if it is not postponed further.

In a little-noticed provision of the new rule, mobile phone companies are pitted
against wired rivals over a requirement that
would allow customers to transfer their wired phone numbers to a wireless
service.

The major wired telephone companies, including SBC Communications Inc. and
Verizon Communications Inc., are beginning
to lose customers who give up wired lines for wireless phones.

The Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm, estimated that about 3 percent
of cellular customers have no phone at home
connected to telephone wires.

Adam Guy, an analyst with InfoTek Research, said even more could abandon land
lines if they could transfer their numbers to
wireless phones. "It just makes it that much more attractive," he said, noting
that some cell phone companies already market
themselves as alternatives to wired phone service.

Douglas I. Brandon, vice president of federal affairs at AT&T Wireless, said the
business can be truly competitive only if his
company can lure customers from their wired competitors.

"Part of our business plan, obviously, is to get minutes from the residential
land-line provider and the only way we can do that is
if we are able to [transfer] their numbers," Brandon said.

In filings with the FCC, SBC has said the requirement to transfer wired phone
numbers to wireless customers should apply only
to about 10 percent of all telephone lines -- those used by customers who live
near the central telephone offices that handle
their wireless calls. The company said in a prepared statement that such a
condition would be the regulatory equivalent of the
current rules governing the transfer of numbers between wired carriers.

"SBC believes that [transferring numbers] between and among all carriers should
be as competitively neutral as possible and
fair to all carriers in the marketplace," a company spokesman said in an
e-mailed statement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59524-2003Apr8.html

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