FCC Extends Number Portability Rules To Interconnected VoIP

If you have the slightest doubt about VoIP becoming mainstream, get your doubts clarified by taking a look at the order issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on October 31st. The order stated that the rules of Local Number Portability (LNP) apply just as well to interconnected VoIP providers as they do to other conventional wireless and wire line telecom providers. Steps have also been taken to ensure that number porting should go more smoothly in the future than it had in the past. From the combination of these two orders, it has become increasingly clear that for the FCC, VoIP is another one of the many phone businesses.

The reason why the order came about was primarily because the Federal Communications Commission kept receiving numerous complaints from customers who attempted to transfer or port phone numbers to VoIP providers or even from them. The core issue was really the legality of the phone numbers and the individuals who were permitted to own them.

Interconnected VoIP providers are those providers that deliver calls using the public telephone network. They do not provide phone calls over the Internet and they do not own any numbers themselves. Only those carriers that are federally regulated and have specified facilities located within the specified area codes are actually allowed to own numbers. VoIP providers can choose to either rent or purchase their numbers from carriers that own them. This is what has led VoIP providers as well as carriers into mistakenly believing that LNP rules are not applicable to VoIP.