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Article published Nov 19, 2003
Some will have to wait to transfer numbers
PAMELA HAMILTON
Associated Press
COLUMBIA -- Residents
in some South Carolina cities will have to wait until next year before they can
take advantage of new federal rules that let people transfer their home phone
numbers to cell phones.The new rules take effect Monday for cell phone customers
in and around Columbia, Charleston, the urban Upstate and suburbs of Charlotte,
N.C.But, people who live near those areas and get their local phone service from
small companies with mostly rural customers will have to wait six months under
an exemption approved last week by the state's utility regulators.Twenty-seven
local phone service providers requested the waiver, saying the Federal
Communication Commission rules need more review. The providers also said
implementing the rules would require costly upgrades."The commission, based on
evidence, believed it was the correct thing to do," said Bruce Duke, acting
executive director of the Public Service Commission. "They just weren't ready to
go ahead with this. Most of them were rural and that's part of the reason why we
granted the exemption."The new FCC rules become effective in March for most
rural customers.Only rural customers who live close enough to cities considered
among the nation's 100 largest markets would have been able to take advantage of
the rules this month.The U.S. Telecom Association, which represents local phone
companies, has said the new rules will allow wireless companies to take away
their customers while limiting their ability to do the same to cell phone
users.The commission should not have granted a waiver based only on a petition
by a group of local providers, said Consumer Advocate Elliott Elam.Elam wants
the Public Service Commission to hold a hearing for public comment, which he
said he should have done before making its decision.Duke said no hearing is
planned."We think those companies may have the right to say this thing was kind
of thrown on us at the last minute, and we need more time," Elam said. "But if
the PSC has in essence on the face of one document from these telephone
companies said 'Well you don't have to do anything,' that's probably going too
far."Musician Christine Poulson doesn't plan to change her home phone number to
her cell phone anytime soon, but she's upset that she must wait. Poulson, 43,
lives in the Lowcountry town of Bluffton and gets local service from one of the
companies on the list.Poulson says she considered switching cell phone service
and it would be much more convenient to keep the same number because it's the
one most people know."If the United States is making a declaration that
everybody has the right to make a change and my little county isn't able to ...
I'd be kind of pissed off," Poulson said. "Maybe I could give them the benefit
of the doubt. But they better be ready in six months, don't you think?"