WASHINGTON -- Since wireless phone number porting began on November 24, 2003, the FCC has received 2,394 informal complaints about wireless local number portability as of December 24.

Most of the complaints concern alleged delays in porting numbers from one wireless carrier to another. A much smaller number of complaints, less than 5 percent of the total, involve alleged delays in porting numbers from wireline carriers to wireless carriers.

AT&T Wireless is involved in the greatest number of the complaints, appearing in 1,221 complaints as either the carrier being ported from or to by a consumer, followed by Sprint PCS at 518, Verizon Wireless at 406, Cingular Wireless, LLC at 359, T-Mobile USA, Inc. at 256 and Nextel Communications, Inc. at 154. Many of the complaints concern more than one carrier so the total number of complaints received is smaller than the number of times a carrier is mentioned in a complaint.

The existence of a complaint does not necessarily indicate any wrongdoing, violation of a FCC rule or order by the carrier or carriers named, nor do the complaint numbers reflect the relative number of subscribers attempting to port a number. More analysis is required to determine what, if any, violation occurred.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)