AT&T Wireless says it is meeting industry standard for LNP

AT&T Wireless has improved its processing of local number portability requests so that more than 75% of requests are being handled within 30 minutes, according to a letter from the wireless carrier to the FCC.

Previously, AT&T Wireless representatives indicated about 50% of LNP requests fail on the first attempt industrywide and that the wireless carrier was experiencing failures on about 60% of its initial LNP efforts.

After allocating "considerable" financial and personnel resources to the issue, AT&T Wireless has cleared thousands of backlogged ports and is meeting the "industry standard" for porting response times, according to the letter. Technical limits in a vendor’s clearinghouse system and periodic outages that hampered testing in the weeks before the Nov. 24 kickoff for LNP contributed to the carrier’s problems, the letter states. The letter was written in response to a request last week from FCC Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta that AT&T Wireless detail its difficulties executing LNP requests. About 50% of all LNP complaints filed with the FCC were related to AT&T Wireless, according to an FCC source.

There are no specific plans for the FCC to respond to the letter from AT&T Wireless, but the agency will continue to monitor the implementation of LNP by all carriers, according to the source.

AT&T Wireless realized the LNP process would be a challenge but is committed to making number porting user-friendly, according to spokeswoman Rochelle Cohen. "We are working as hard we can, both internally and with others in the industry, to improve the number porting process," Cohen said. "We are devoted to improving the experience for the customers."