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Court: Cell phone users can keep numbers when switching
Friday, June 6, 2003 Posted: 4:31 PM EDT (2031 GMT)


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cell phone users should be allowed to keep their numbers
when they switch to new providers, a federal court ruled Friday in rejecting
an appeal by wireless companies.

Consumer advocates say not having that option is one of the biggest barriers
preventing more wireless customers from switching in search of better
service and prices. The Federal Communications Commission is requiring
wireless carriers to provide "number portability" by November 24.

Verizon Wireless and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet
Association, an industry group, challenged the requirement in April, telling
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that the FCC
overstepped its authority. They argued the rule will raise costs while doing
little to promote competition.

The court's three-judge panel rejected that challenge, calling the FCC's
action "permissible and reasonable." The court also said the cell phone
companies waited too long to object to the rule.

"It is obvious that any regulation that frees consumers from staying with
carriers with whom they are dissatisfied affords them protection," the court
said. "It was reasonable for the FCC to conclude that wireless consumers
would switch carriers at even higher rates if they could keep their phone
numbers."

CTIA President Tom Wheeler said he was disappointed by the decision. He said
that if the FCC doesn't provide more guidance on how number portability will
work, "consumers will find chaos in the market."

Big costs for industry
Verizon Wireless, which has been working for months to meet the deadline,
said it would push for Congress to undo the requirement.

"Requiring local number portability is bad public policy," the company said
in a statement. "The resources required to fulfill this new mandate will
unnecessarily be redirected from our core business activities: expanding
network quality and reach, improving customer service, and initiating new
services and products."

The wireless industry estimates that number portability will cost more than
$1 billion in the first year and $500 million each year thereafter.

Chris Murray, an attorney for Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports
magazine, called the court ruling a "a big win for consumers." He said the
lack of portability particularly harms small businesses and self-employed
people because when switching carriers they lose numbers known by their
customers.

Congress decided in 1996 that people can keep their traditional local phone
numbers when they change phone companies. The FCC said soon after that
wireless carriers should offer that ability to people in the largest 100
U.S. cities by June 1999.

Extending deadlines
The FCC extended that deadline three times, most recently granting a
yearlong extension last summer after Verizon Wireless asked the commission
to eliminate the requirement.

Most wireless companies argue that their industry is competitive enough and
doesn't need a regulatory boost. They say there are about 146 million U.S.
cell phone subscribers and about a third of them change carriers each year.

Many cell phone users outside the United States, in places such as Britain,
Australia and Hong Kong, already have the option of keeping their numbers
when they switch carriers.