Phone Number Portability Pushed

WASHINGTON -- Wireless phone users who want to keep their cell phone when they switch service providers will have to wait a bit longer--but they'll get their way eventually, the Federal Communications Commission has ruled.

The FCC on Tuesday answered a petition from mobile carrier Verizon Wireless and extended by one year the approaching deadline for networks to let users keep their numbers when they change carriers, much as land-line services do now. It would also require carriers to enable customers to turn an existing wire-line phone number into a wireless phone number. Verizon had asked the FCC to revoke the deadline completely, but the commission instead pushed it to November 24, 2003. This is the third extension the FCC has granted; officials say they intend it to be the last.

Still Arguing

Response to the "number portability" decision--which would make it easier for consumers to switch carriers--has been mixed. Critics argue it imposes financial burdens on wireless carriers. Supporters say it is necessary to encourage competition. In fact, more than 30 percent of the nation's 129 million phone subscribers change carriers every year, according to the FCC's own records.

The decision is both good and bad for consumers, says MJ Bear, principal for online and wireless consulting firm MJBear.com. Although number portability would provide convenience for consumers, she says, wireless companies need the break to develop next-generation services.

"U.S. wireless carriers are so behind our European and Asian counterparts ... that I don't want to slow them down" with such a mandate, Bear says.

Wireless companies will spend an estimated $1 billion the year they implement number portability, says Travis Larson, a spokesperson for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association trade organization. The rule would cost cellular companies an additional $500 million in subsequent years, he adds.

"These costs, if spent on number portability, [will divert] dollars spent on network reliability," Larson says.

Cost or Convenience?

The wireless number portability deadline was set in 1996 after Congress directed wire-line phone companies to adopt a similar policy.

Although commissioners disagreed about the optimal length of the extension, the FCC appears unlikely to extend this deadline again. Commissioners are calling for 2003 compliance "absent extraordinary circumstances."

It took wire-line carriers roughly two and a half years to reach number portability, says Jonathan Askin, general counsel for the Association for Local Telecommunication Services, which represents smaller phone carriers. He believes the change benefited the industry.

"We've certainly had the same battles on the wire-line side, and number portability was necessary to provide competition," he says.

Bear doubts consumers will be too troubled by the delay. "Do people complain when they switch houses and that number can't follow them?" she asks.