NANC Working Group Hits Stalemate on Wireline-Wireless Porting
A N. American Numbering Council (NANC) working group trying to work out differences between wireless and wireline carriers on porting issues has deadlocked with little prospect of compromise, sources said. In Dec., T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel asked the FCC to rule that LECs can’t impose what they call unnecessary hurdles to number porting.
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“The group cannot come to an agreement on how much information must be exchanged between the landline carriers and the wireless carriers,” said a NANC member: “They have been in a state of almost paralysis and not able to agree.”
A 2nd source said NANC has historically been unable to resolve conflicts over porting issues. “For 6 years now a number of porting issues have been discussed and worked on and they've been unable to come to any consensus,” the source said of NANC: “It’s not just wireless carriers that are having the problem. The CLECs are, too.”
Comments are starting to roll in for the FCC docket on the T-Mobile-Sprint petition. The 2 carriers asked the FCC to declare that LECs can’t demand “information from requesting providers beyond that required to validate the customer request and accomplish the port.”
The Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) cited wireless carrier complaints that some LECs require completion of forms with more than 100 data fields to port a wireline number to another carrier. “It would appear that LECs might be using unnecessarily burdensome validation procedures to thwart competition from wireless carriers,” IUB said.
IUB said porting roadblocks could contribute to area code exhaustion. “If current validation procedures stand in the way of wireline consumers porting their existing telephone numbers, then those consumers will simply request new telephone numbers from wireless carriers,” the commission said: “To fill this demand, wireless carriers will be forced to order additional blocks of telephone numbers.”
PCIA filed in support of T-Mobile and Sprint. “The ability to port numbers delivers consumer choice and demand for multiple services and providers,” PCIA said: “The critical component and benefit of porting is its seamless rapid changeover. The wireless industry has set the standard for porting and in general the port and activation for wireless-to-wireless ports is completed within two-and-a-half hours. Consumers expect this kind of service and anything less is unjustified.”