文章基本信息

标题：Phone Group Sues Over Number Switching
作者：Yuki Noguchi
期刊名称：Washingtonpost.com
出版年度：2003
卷号：Nov 21, 2003
出版社：The Washington Post

Phone Group Sues Over Number Switching

Yuki Noguchi

Byline: Yuki Noguchi

A group of local phone companies today asked a federal court to block rules that would allow customers to switch their home telephone numbers to cell phones, but the rules will go into effect Monday as scheduled, as the legal wrangling continues into next week.

The United States Telecom Association, which represents the local telephone industry, and CenturyTel, a Colorado-based carrier, filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, seeking an emergency stay on the rule, stating regulators did not follow proper administrative procedures.

The carriers complained that the Federal Communications Commission provided guidelines for home-to-wireless switching only 10 days before the rules were to go into effect, and has not yet released similar guidelines for consumers who seek a transfer of a wireless number to a home line.

Late yesterday, the court asked the FCC to file its response Wednesday. The USTA's response is due the following Wednesday.

A similar rule also scheduled to go into effect Nov. 24 will allow customers to keep their phone numbers when switching wireless carriers.

That rule also faced a challenge from a group of four rural phone companies who sought a delay, but late today the court denied that petition.

"We're pleased that consumers will have the freedom to transfer their numbers on Monday as planned," said Richard Diamond, spokesman for the FCC.

Already, tens of thousands of customers have pre-registered to switch their numbers to other carriers. Carriers are anticipating as many as a million customers will try to switch their numbers.

In a press conference earlier in the week, FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell said the commission would defend the rules.

He urged the local phone companies mounting the challenges to "look at the film of the Do-Not-Call database fiasco" in which the FCC prevailed in getting temporary permission to enforce its national anti-telemarketing registry despite eleventh-hour filings by the telemarketing industry.

In a separate press conference today, K. Dane Snowden, chief of the FCC's consumer bureau, said, "We will vigorously defend whatever lawsuits come to court."