Wireline operators take far too long to port customer telephone numbers to wireless carriers, possibly as a tactic to make customers quit trying to leave, the CTIA asserted in a letter to the FCC this week.

When customers cancel landlines and sign up for wireless service, the wireline companies sometimes take up to four days to oblige number porting requests, the CTIA contended in the ex parte letter to FCC.  Wireless carriers typically port numbers in no more than two hours and there’s no reason most cases should take any longer, although there are exceptions requiring up to 48 hours, the association said.

“Such excessive porting intervals now function as a barrier to competition as consumers, frustrated by their attempts to port their phone number to a new carrier, may be inclined to ‘give up’ their attempts to switch providers. The end result is an incentive to delay number porting in the hopes that customers will decide to stay,” the CTIA wrote. 

“CTIA likewise urges the commission to require that wireline carriers satisfy a shorter timeframe for simple intermodal port requests… Claims by rural [local exchange carriers] and their associations that switch visits and other time-consuming measures are necessary to complete a simple port are simply not true – particularly in light of the commission’s decision to limit the information needed for simple port requests,” the letter continues.

By focusing on the porting behavior of local companies, the CTIA exempted giants such as AT&T and Verizon, which both also provide local wireline service.  CTIA spokesman Joe Farren said he wasn’t aware of any specific complaints against offending companies.

A representative of CompTel, the association representing local exchange carriers, did not reply to a request for comment this morning.