National
Roll Out of Local Number Portability:
What Consumers Need To Know: Frequently Asked Questions
By Seema M. Singh
Ratepayer Advocate
Beginning May 24, 2004 wireless local number portability becomes available
in the entire country, following its initial implementation in the top
100 MSA’s -- or Metropolitan Statistical Areas -- on November 24, 2003.
Q. What
is Local Number Portability?
Local Number Portability
gives subscribers the freedom to keep their existing wireless or wireline
numbers when they switch to another carrier. This is known as “porting”.
Wireline subscribers
have had the right to port their landline numbers since 1997, under the
1996 Federal Telecommunications Act. However, wireless subscribers were
only provided this choice when wireless LNP was first implemented on November
24, 2003 in the top 100 MSAs and then rolled out nationally on May 24,
2004.
Q. How
Is Local Number Portability Affecting New Jersey?
Most of New Jersey
was included in the November 24, 2003, rollout of LNP, except for Mercer,
Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland. As of May 24, 2004, residents of these
4 counties will have the ability to port their number.
How is
LNP affecting the entire nation?
Seventy percent of
the nation’s estimated 160 million cellphone users were affected by the
initial roll out of LNP on November 24, 2003. The remaining 30 percent
are covered by the national implementation of LNP, effective May 24, 2004.
Q. How
many subscribers have taken advantage of porting?
The FCC reports that
over 3 million have ported to and from wireless carriers in the past six
months. An additional 229,000 customers ported their landline numbers
to a cellphone and an estimated 7,200 ported their cell phone numbers
to a landline phone.
Q. What
were the most common problems faced by subscribers in the initial implementation
of LNP?
During the initial
rollout of LNP, many subscribers experienced serious delays of up to six
or seven days as well as a high incidence of failed ports. Some customers
were stranded with no cellular service or were even switched to the wrong
carrier.
Q. What
were the main reasons for failed and delayed ports during the initial
implementation of LNP and what is the Ratepayer Advocate advising consumers
to do?
Validation Failure
has emerged as the main cause of unsuccessful and delayed ports.
Validation Failure
is when the switch cannot occur because the two carriers have mismatched
data, such as not having the exact name and address of the customer. Something
as simple as a missing middle initial can prevent validation. The Ratepayer
Advocate advises consumers to follow the checklist provided below.
Q. Has
there been a rising trend of complaints since the initial implementation
of LNP?
The FCC reports that
the total number of complaints regarding LNP between November 24, 2003,
and April 24, 2004, reached 7,040. However, the number of monthly complaints
dramatically declined from the 2400 recorded during the first 30 days
of the rollout to 400 during the last 30 days preceding April 24, 2004.
Q. Should
subscribers expect similar problems in the national rollout of LNP?
The New Jersey Ratepayer
Advocate advises patience and caution because national LNP may be even
more difficult to implement, with over 100 small carriers joining the
estimated 10 major providers involved in the first phase of LNP.
But analysts predict
that the national rollout of LNP should benefit from the body of knowledge
and experience gathered from its initial release, with smaller carriers
tapping into the experience of the bigger providers.
The major cellular
carriers say they have made a significant investment of resources to resolve
problems and improve coordination among them. This includes increasing
the amount of staff at the point of sale and opting for manual switching
when automatic processes break down. Wireless carriers have also reduced
the number of identification fields from 15 to fewer than half a dozen,
increasing the likelihood of successful ports.
The FCC reports that
carriers have established dedicated points of contact and conflict escalation
teams to resolve porting issues once they are identified.
Q. What
is the average time to complete a successful port?
The average time to
complete a port is still a day, compared to the two-and-a-half hour porting
interval projected by the carriers and prescribed by the FCC before the
initial rollout last November.
Q. Who
is paying the cost of number portability?
The consumer.
Consumers have paid
their wireless providers in their monthly bills an estimated $1 billion
to turn the system on for LNP. All wireless consumers pay for LNP irrespective
of whether they take advantage of LNP.
The FCC allows carriers
to charge fees to subscribers to recover the fixed cost as well as the
ongoing costs. But the FCC requires that the charges should not be in
excess of each carrier’s cost and may investigate to determine that charges
are just and reasonable.
The Ratepayer Advocate
has determined that carriers have been charging or plan to charge between
0.40 cents to $ 2.00 per subscriber per month to pay for number portability.
Q. What
are the benefits of Number Portability?
The New Jersey Division
of the Ratepayer Advocate, which represents the interests of consumers,
welcomes number portability for ushering in greater freedom of choice,
spurring competition and encouraging technological innovation. LNP removes
barriers to switching and provides consumers with a greater choice of
carriers and the convenience of keeping their existing numbers. It benefits
the ratepayer, the consumer.
Whether they have
switched cell phone carriers or not, customers have already started reaping
the benefits of lower prices and attractive packages offered by wireless
carriers as inducements to keep customers from switching.
That’s the benefit
of freedom of choice and competition.
Q. How
is the Ratepayer Advocate involved in Number Portability?
The New Jersey Ratepayer
Advocate has taken the lead in monitoring the complaint data from the
FCC and issued several Consumer Advisories with safety precautions and
a checklist for ratepayers.
The Ratepayer Advocate
has also called on wireless carriers to heed the lessons learned from
the initial rollout of local number portability and ensure better implementation
during the national roll out on May 24, 2004.
Q. What
should subscribers do if they decide to port?
The Ratepayer Advocate
is recommending that consumers follow the RPA’s checklist:
Ratepayer
Advocate Local Number Portability Checklist
- Review your existing
contract to determine if you will incur early termination fees.
(Early termination fees may incur if you break your existing contract)
- Contact your new
carrier first and provide it with the most recent bill from your old
carrier to ensure an exact match of name and address to avoid validation
problems.
- Hold onto your
existing number with the original carrier and keep both phones active
until the port is successful.
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