Cellphone carriers charging for WNPP
WNPP (Wireless Number Pooling Portability) AKA LNP (Local Number Portability) is an FCC regulation that requires cellular providers to allow for anyone to take their number with them to another carrier as long as the number doesn’t cross zip codes or change telephone exchanges. (e.g. 262-555-1212 could not be ported to 715-555-1212 really your just porting the last four of your number) so if you move because your carrier doesn’t cover your newly found home and decide to keep your number it is likely to be long distance for incoming local callers. This should be especially considered by anyone using their cell phone for business.
As a former employee of U.S. Cellular I can tell you a little something about WNPP (Wireless Number Pooling Portability). First off porting a number to a new carrier is as simple as verifying your identity, filling out a form, and cancelling your contract you can contact your carrier and they can guide you through the process step by step but for the most part it’s pretty straight forward.
The FCC mandated that allowed carriers could charge for LNP and WNPP as a “recovery fee”. However many carriers are charging all customers for this fee regardless of whether they port a number or not. I recommend contacting your local telephone or cellular provider to see if you have been paying this fee. If you’re like me and look your bills over well you may have already noticed a charge for WNP, WNPP, or LNP on your bills.
Porting also applies to landline telephone numbers. Porting a landline can sometimes take up to two weeks and there is some question as to why it takes so long to port a landline number and cellular companies can do it in as little as 24 hours.
Read More about LNP and WNPP in the Wikipedia here.
January 15th, 2007 at January 15, 2007
Just ported my cell phone to a new carrier in December and it took about 10 seconds to transfer to my new service.