Today, Federal Court ruled that the FCC mandate requiring Wireless Telecommunications companies to provide Local Number Portability is valid.
Overall, this is good news for consumers. While Wireless Access companies claim that such a mandate will raise costs and do little to promote competition, most consumers would agree that the the main reason they stay with a wireless company they don’t like is their inability to retain the same phone number.
The FCC’s mandate requires all Wireless Communications companies to be capable of number portability by November 24th of this year. Wireline communication companies have been required to support LNP since February of 1999.
One important fact to remember that some people neglect to realize is that this is local number portability. It does not enable you to purchase a cell phone in NY with a NY number from one provider and transfer it to another provider in CA because you moved there.