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To: FactsOnly who wrote (2380)	7/16/2002 3:00:06 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 2737

WSJ -- Cellphone Users Must Wait a Year To Keep Number When Switching July 16, 2002 1:46 p.m. EDT Cellphone Users Must Wait a Year To Keep Number When Switching A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP WASHINGTON -- Consumers will have to wait another year before they can keep their wireless phone numbers when they switch carriers. On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission for the third time extended a deadline that will require carriers to allow subscribers to keep their numbers, saying carriers needed more time to comply with the rule. The one-year extension, which makes the new deadline Nov. 24, 2003, was a compromise between members who wanted only a short delay and others who called for a two-year delay. Congress said in 1996 that people can keep their traditional local phone numbers when they change phone companies. The FCC said that year that wireless carriers also would have to offer "number portability." Verizon Wireless, Cingular, Sprint PCS and AT&T Wireless are among the major cellphone companies opposing the requirement, citing cost and technical hurdles. But others, such as Nextel Communications and Leap Wireless, support the measure as a way for them to gain customers. The FCC decision Tuesday was prompted by a request from Verizon Wireless, a partnership between Verizon Communications and Britain's Vodafone PLC, which petitioned the commission last year to eliminate the requirement. Much of the wireless industry supported the petition. The four FCC commissioners denied the petition, but had to compromise on the length of the extension. Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said she wanted a delay that stretched into 2004 to give companies more time and to avoid draining their resources. Commissioner Michael Copps said he wanted a shorter delay. "A shorter delay would have been better," said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, but reaching a compromise was needed because inaction could have scuttled the rule altogether. But FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said it is "the wrong time to substitute the government's judgment for the market's on how to best serve the marketplace." Ms. Abernathy, who favored the two-year delay, said costs of compliance will hit carriers while capital is scarce and consumers are demanding network improvements. About 137 million Americans subscribe to cellphone services and about a third change carriers each year, according to industry figures. Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (www.wow-com.com), said those numbers show that not being able to keep phone numbers is not preventing people from switching. "Competition is alive and well," Mr. Larson said before the decision. His industry group supported eliminating or delaying the FCC requirement. But consumer advocates say not being able to retain numbers is one of the biggest barriers preventing even more cellphone users from switching in search of better service and prices. "The idea that this won't benefit consumers is ludicrous," said Chris Murray, an attorney for Consumers Union (www.consumersunion.org), the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. Gilbert Crowell, an agricultural products salesman from San Marcos, Calif., said not being able to keep his cellphone number hurts his ability to do business. "They hold you hostage," he said. "I'm wedded to AT&T now and if I decide Verizon or somebody else has a better deal for me I have to go through some horrendous process of attempting to get people to know my new cell phone number." The wireless industry estimates that implementing portable numbers will cost more than $1 billion in the first year and $500 million each year after that. "Maybe consumers would prefer that money be spent in building up networks, filling in dead spots and reducing busy signals," Mr. Larson said. He added that the portability requirement was originally intended to increase competition among traditional wireline carriers and should not apply to wireless services, which already have a competitive market. In 1996, the FCC required that wireless companies let cellphone users keep their numbers in the top 100 U.S. cities by June 1999. But the agency gave the carriers extensions, setting the deadline for later this year. Many cellphone users outside the U.S. in places such as Britain, Australia and Hong Kong already have the option of keeping their numbers when they switch carriers. -- Mark Wigfield of Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this article Updated July 16, 2002 1:46 p.m. EDT Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved