Inouye Sets Vote Next Week on Porting Bill
The Senate Commerce Committee next week will mark up legislation designed to speed porting of phone numbers from local exchange carriers to wireless carriers and other rivals, Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) said Thursday. That move at the end of a number portability hearing came despite wireline, wireless carriers and cable industry claims that the FCC has the authority in needs to act.
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Much hearing testimony hewed closely to arguments made to the FCC on a December 2006 petition by Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile (CD Dec 22 p1) asking the agency to impose simplified porting rules. They sought a declaration that LECs may not demand “information from requesting providers beyond that required to validate the customer request and accomplish the port.”
Wireless carriers complain that LECs routinely require them to fill out Local Service Requests (LSRs) containing more than 100 data fields. In contrast, wireless carriers usually require only the phone number, account number and password, with porting often done in less than 30 minutes, wireless carriers say.
The legislation to be marked up, most likely July 19, is the Same Number Act of 2007 (S. 1769), which Inouye introduced Thursday with Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the committee’s ranking Republican. It directs the FCC to establish porting timetables for different types of port, based on provider and the services ported, such as voice, data and video. It would set data exchange requirements and require annual reports by carriers for five years.
Congressional oversight and legislation are needed if the FCC does not act on the wireless carrier petition, which CTIA backs, said Chris Guttman-McCabe, CTIA vice president of regulatory affairs. Otherwise the FCC could rely on North American Numbering Council or ATIS recommendations, he said.
“Those are consensus-driven bodies and at least half the membership… don’t have the incentive to reach consensus,” Guttman-McCabe said. “It makes sense to visit the need for legislation.” He added that the issue has been stalled in NANC and ATIS since 2004.
But Jonathan Banks, senior vice president of law and policy at the U.S. Telecom Association, said problems in completing ports from LECs often are overstated. Banks said more than 57 million ports have been completed as required. Banks denied, citing data from USTelecom members, allegations that about 30 percent of ports are cancelled.
“The process of porting has steadily improved over time,” Banks said. “One of our member companies reports that for all of 2006 the number of complaints they received concerning intramodal ports was nine, and that’s out of 900,000.”
USTelecom has worked to improve porting with CTIA and in NANC, the main standards group focused on the matter, Banks said. “Continued streamlining and improvements in porting processes are important,” he said, noting that they save his members money. “But we believe the best place for these improvements to occur is in these industry standards bodies where are affected carriers can get together and work out solutions.”
Porting forms are also simpler than wireless carriers claim, he said, noting that though they may contain 100 fields only about 25 need to be filled in to order a port. Many of those fields are as straightforward as seeking the company’s name and contact information in case something goes wrong.
CTIA’s calls for reform have backing from NARUC and cable operators. “At the very minimum it makes sense to keep the legislation alive to keep the pressure up,” said Tony Clark, chairman of NARUC’s Telecommunications Committee. “We believe that the FCC can address this, has the authority to address it,” the a North Dakota regulator said. “But to the extent that it continues not to be acted upon we believe that hearings such as this and potential legislation are worthwhile.”
Ted Schremp, general counsel at Charter Telephone, said that without FCC action or legislation LECs will have little incentive to come to negotiate streamlined porting. “It’s a documented fact that the incumbent providers are losing six to seven percent market share every year and other alternatives, both wireless and competitive wireline included, are picking up that market share,” he said. “Whether it’s through FCC action or through this committee, market forces are not sufficient and further action is required.”
Charter’s ability to compete with incumbents hinges on simplified porting, Schremp said. “We've overcome a whole host of hurdles to become successful in the facilities-based wireline market, including certainly interconnection agreements, interconnection rights, economic issues about making facilities-based competition works,” he said. “But given that three-quarters of our customers port numbers when they come to us we have on a daily basis what we view as a barrier to competition.” He told the committee subscribers may wait two weeks for ports to be completed before they can sign on with the cable service.
“Technological advances and innovations generate constant change in the communications marketplace, and Congress must ensure consumers are not hampered by delays or protracted procedures which arise when they change services,” Stevens said in a written statement.