Coming up empty U S West seeks redress for number portability mandate

U S West is working steadily to meet federal rules governing local number portability, even though it claims it can't afford to do so.

The carrier has filed a complaint with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, seeking $20 million to cover its incremental cost of implementing interim local number portability, said Bob Connelly, vice president of law at U S West. The cost covers things such as providing remote call forwarding and additional trunking so that people who switch local carriers may keep their phone numbers.

The complaint alleges that the Federal Communications Commission failed to acknowledge a cost recovery method while permanent number portability solutions are worked out. The technology required for permanent portability could take longer to achieve than many people realize, Connelly said.

Furthermore, U S West believes the money it's spending on interim number portability will ultimately help its competitors. By prohibiting the incumbent carrier from recovering the costs, U S West is alleging that its assets are being confiscated. The government has until mid-January to respond.

At the same time, U S West is working toward implementing permanent number portability in the Minneapolis metropolitan area by the fourth quarter of 1997, as required by the FCC. The carrier will use Lucent Technologies' location routing number technology to route calls between switches. The technology requires a certain level of generic software from switch vendors, as well as some hardware and memory additions, depending upon how the switch has been engineered, said Tommy Thompson, product manager in interconnection service at U S West. A database for storing the numbers also is new to the carrier's network.

But perhaps the biggest challenge is the operations support system, Thompson said. That's because numbers now are tied to particular central office switches. If someone chooses another service provider or moves to another switch's jurisdiction, the process becomes more complicated in terms of routing the number, he noted. A few hundred systems need programming, change-outs or minor work to accommodate such contingencies.