Sprint charges for Number pooling & portability

NEW YORK (AP) — Some cell phone companies appear poised to profit off a
new fee that covers the cost of enabling customers to switch wireless
services without giving up their phone numbers.

The fee, permitted by the federal government, is already being levied
by four national carriers and is generally less than $1 per month. But
that adds up quickly when multiplied across the millions of subscribers each
carrier serves.

And in certain cases, the money being collected appears to exceed the
actual cost of meeting a November deadline set by the Federal
Communications Commission for "number portability" — which will let
people keep their cell numbers when switching wireless providers.

Sprint PCS, for example, has about 17.9 million customers who began
paying an additional 63 cents per month in July, generating $11.3 million per
month for "cost recovery."

Over the course of a year, Sprint's fee would bring in about $135
million at current subscriber levels — though that amount likely will be
even
higher since Sprint and other carriers are signing up hundreds of
thousands of new customers per quarter.

Sprint refused to quantify its expense for enabling number portability
beyond a rough estimate of "hundreds of millions of dollars" — an
amount several times larger than more specific estimates disclosed by rivals
Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless. Similarly, Nextel
Communications says it has spent about twice the costs estimated by Verizon and
Cingular.

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"DSL GURU" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
<snipped>

Old news Phillipe. We've been talking about these fees in numerous threads
going back months ...

So, you're point in posting old news, once again?

Bob

SprintPCS gave customers the option to opt out of the contract based on the
WNLP fee.


"Bob Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "DSL GURU" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> <snipped>
>
> Old news Phillipe. We've been talking about these fees in numerous threads
> going back months ...
>
> So, you're point in posting old news, once again?
>
> Bob
>
>

> SprintPCS gave customers the option to opt out of > the contract based on the
WNLP fee.

Only if the insisted based upon a Judges ruling. We had many postings of folks
being told by CSRs, "no they could not opt out".