Rural Carriers Moving Slowly on WNP

Small and rural carriers are in the middle of nowhere when it comes to implementing wireless number portability (WNP). Carriers outside the top 100 MSAs have until Nov. 24, 2002, or six months from a request, whichever is later, to allow consumers to retain their phone numbers when they change carriers. Furthermore, all carriers have to be able to support nationwide roaming by Nov. 24, 2002.

At WNP committee meetings that hammer out standards for the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC; www.npac.com), top-tier carriers are present, but their rural counterparts have been noticeably absent. Maggie Lee, Illuminet (www.illuminet.com) number portability senior technical analyst, said that rural carriers' absence may force them to accept decisions made without regard to their unique needs and challenges.

“The decisions that are being made now in terms of testing and the requirements for NPAC are being made by the bigger carriers,” Lee said. (Rural carriers) are going to have to live with those decisions if they don't come and voice their opinions and understand what's going on.”

Mike McCue, Blackfoot Communications (www.blackfoot.net) wireless product manager, said rural carriers depend on national carriers to blaze a trail through difficult issues such as WNP.

“We don't feel polarized from their needs versus our needs,” McCue said.

Jan Opie, Golden State Cellular (www.goldenstatecellular.com) product development manager, disagreed. She thinks rural carriers have a valid voice that doesn't get recognized.

“It's like the E-911 issue,” she said. “No one is asking the rural carriers what they think. The powers that be are concerned about where the most people are, so the rural carriers are just taken along for the ride.”

Opie is one of 25 employees taking care of Golden State Cellular's 16,000 customers. Rural carriers certainly have little manpower to handle regulatory issues; one employee might be responsible for WNP, CALEA, E-911 and other regulatory matters.

Opie admits that Golden State is in the beginning stages of WNP implementation; fundamentals, though, already are changing.

“The way everyone has done business is based on the MIN,” she said. That's how the carrier knows that the caller is from a valid roam partner, whom to bill, and whether to let the call go through.

To port numbers, the MIN and MDN must be separated, and the MIN does not go with the customer, so he might not be who the carrier thinks he is.

Some analysts project that WNP could cost a carrier more than a billion dollars. To make matters worse, there's no clear ROI, nor any indication of how frequently carriers will port numbers or handle ported numbers roaming into their networks.

Jerrell Hall, Advantage Cellular Systems (www.advantagecell.com) cellular manager, said it will cost more than a million dollars just to upgrade the carrier's switch to handle WNP. Getting that upgrade in time to meet the mandate troubles Hall and McCue.

“It's just hard to get help from (switch vendors), even to get an order filled when you want to buy something from them,” McCue said.

Rural carriers may find some relief in knowing that the cost of a WNP solution, such as Illuminet's, is based on the carrier's number of ports, rather than a flat fee. Some rural carriers, though, are focused solely on handling ported numbers roaming in their markets.

“We're looking to install the software that will allow roamers' ported numbers to come into our market,” Hall said. “We're definitely not looking to port numbers until we have a request to do that.”

The closer a rural carrier is to a top 100 MSA, the more likely it is to get ported numbers roaming in its market and eventually get a request to port numbers. McCue said he expects Blackfoot, which serves Western Montana, to get a request right off the bat. Blackfoot's nearest MSA is Seattle. Golden State Cellular's market backs up to the Stockton, CA, MSA.

“We want to be ready by the November date for roamers in our market,” Opie said. “We'll cross the people-wanting-to-port bridge later.”

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Want to see your proximity to a top 100 MSA market? Look for this article on www.wirelessreview.com.

The Rural Cellular Association will hold a WNP workshop for rural and small carriers on Aug. 28 & 29. See “Mark Your Calendar” for details.