FCC Pushes For Shorter Number Transfer Time, VoIP Transparency

The plan comes as the FCC's three sitting commissioners convened yesterday to discuss number portability and how carriers can better address customer needs. The one business day turnaround on number transfers builds on the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which mandates that telecoms let customers transfer to a competitor's service while keeping their old phone numbers. Those transfers typically take four business days.

"It appears to be the unanimous judgment of the Commission that a one-business day porting interval for simple wireline-to-wireline and intermodal ports best services consumers and is nevertheless altogether doable in the time frame we provide today," Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps said in a statement.

The FCC claims that delays in number porting costs consumers money and can impede their ability to choose providers based on price, quality and service. All providers must implement the new porting interval within nine months from the time the FCC receives input from the North American Numbering Council (NANC). That input is due 90 days after the effective date of the order. Smaller carriers, however, have 15 months to switch their transfer times from four days to one.

"For a number of years now, wireless carriers have been porting numbers between themselves in a matter of hours," said Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein in a statement. "Simply put, consumers should be able to port a number quickly no matter who their carrier is."

Carriers, too, appear to support the initiative.

In a statement released to Reuters, Verizon Communications said, "Verizon will work with the FCC and the industry to help make this new system work well for consumers. Verizon meets current requests over 99 percent of the time and we will aim to continue this record."

T-Mobile also said it will comply.

"T-Mobile applauds the leadership of the FCC today for reducing the wireline-to-wireless porting interval to one day," T-Mobile USA vice president of government affairs Tom Sugrue told Reuters. "We look forward to working with the Commission and the NANC to facilitate a rapid and smooth transition."

Along with reducing the timeline for number transfers, the FCC this week also expanded consumer protections for interconnected VoIP customers. Interconnected VoIP carriers let customers place and receive calls from the public telephone network, rather than solely over the Internet.

The FCC will now require those providers to notify customers before they discontinue, reduce or impair service, requirements conventional providers already follow. Essentially, the order means interconnected VoIP providers can no longer close up shop without notice, which leaves customers without phone service or recourse.

Consumers are increasingly using interconnected VoIP to replace analog voice service, and their expectation for notice, access to emergency 911 service and other consumer protections are the same as for users of traditional voice services, the FCC said.

"Today's action is not merely about consumers' convenience," Adelstein added in a statement. "It is a serious public safety matter. If a subscriber does not receive sufficient warning that their interconnected VoIP provider will cut off service, that consumer could well be left without telephone -- and 911 -- service. The commission should have given consumers these protections years ago, as we have seen interconnected VoIP service providers go out of business and strand consumers."