AT&T Wireless urged FCC in Fri. ex parte filing to forbear from w...

permanent forbearance, while at least extending deadline until after number pooling requirements were in place. Verizon Wireless in July petitioned FCC to exercise forbearance on LNP requirements that begin Nov. 24, and Sprint PCS had urged agency to make decision on that request by end of 2001. AT&T Wireless told FCC Fri. that “competitive and technical considerations” justified forbearance from LNP for at least 30 months “with a re-look at the end of that period.” AT&T argued: (1) There were no signs that lack of wireless number portability had hampered wireless competition. (2) Simultaneous implementation of number pooling by wireless carriers, which also had Nov. 24 deadline, and porting would pose risk to network reliability, service quality and implementation of pooling requirements. Carrier said existing volumes of individual LEC ports used for pooling and porting average 18.8 million annually, figure that’s expected to rise to 20.7 million next year. AT&T Wireless said if 46.8% of number planning areas were pooled, and every wireless carrier had to convert to LNP in Nov., porting and pooling volumes could triple to 78.6 million next year. “Even though wireless carriers and Neustar are working diligently to prepare for these increased volumes, it would be unrealistic to believe that a complex set of interdependent network systems can handle a three-fold increase in volume with no degradation of service,” AT&T said. In other areas, AT&T Wireless said there could be “significant problems” with wireless to wireline number porting. Also, carrier said “hasty” LNP deployment could mean service problems for subscribers. “Insufficient time to implement and fully test intercarrier communications processes may generally result in unsuccessful or delayed ports -- resulting in service outage for the customer.”