FCC OKs Charges for Switching Provider, Keeping Phone Number

Local phone companies will be able to recover the costs of letting customers keep their phone numbers if they switch phone companies, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday.

The 1996 Telecommunications Act requires phone companies to put in place expensive computer systems that let customers switch local phone companies without changing their phone numbers. The plan was meant to ensure that new local phone rivals could compete against the existing Baby Bells and GTE Corp.

The FCC approved new rules allowing the existing phone companies to recover their costs for so-called number portability by charging both business and residential customers a set monthly fee for five years, beginning Feb. 1, 1999. Wireless phone companies and new local competitors are permitted under the FCC’s rules to recover costs associated with implementing number portability “in any lawful manner,” the FCC said.

Only those companies that actually have systems in place to allow customers to keep their phone numbers will be permitted to impose the new fees. So far, local phone companies put in place systems capable of handling number portability in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. The system will be implemented in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston and Minneapolis within the next five months, and the rest of the 100 largest metropolitan areas will be phased in by Dec. 31.

“As today’s order recognizes, the cost of implementing local number portability throughout the nation is not insignificant,” FCC Chairman William Kennard said.

The FCC must “carefully monitor” the roll-out of number portability, Kennard added. “We should not ask consumers to pay for number portability before they are able to enjoy the benefits of the competitive options that number portability is designed to facilitate,” he said.