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 Federal  Communications  Commission  FCC  04-  91 
 STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  JONATHAN  S.  ADELSTEIN 


 Re:  Telephone  Number  Portability,  BellSouth  Corporation  Petition  for  Declaratory  Ruling  and/  or  Waiver,  Order 
 Through  this  Notice,  the  Commission  permits  carriers  to  recover  the  costs  that  they  have  incurred  to  implement  intermodal  number  portability,  which  allows  consumers  to  bring  their  telephone  numbers 
 with  them  when  they  switch  providers,  whether  wireless  or  wireline.  Congress  viewed  the  ability  of  consumers  to  keep  their  phone  numbers  to  be  an  important  component  of  the  effort  to  develop  local  phone 
 competition  and  consumer  choice. 
 I  write  separately  to  emphasize  that  this  Commission  has  an  obligation  to  ensure  that  carriers  seeking  to  recover  their  costs  of  intermodal  portability  meet  strict  standards.  The  Commission’s  rules 
 require  these  carriers  to  file  detailed  cost  support  data  to  demonstrate  the  reasonableness  of  these  costs.  Our  review  of  these  filings  is  essential  because  it  is  consumers  who  ultimately  bear  these  costs.  Indeed, 
 we  have  heard  recently  from  consumer  advocates  who  ask  us  to  redouble  our  efforts  to  oversee  the  “line  item”  charges  on  consumer  bills.  These  consumer  advocates  raise  concerns  about  the  legitimacy  and 
 accuracy  of  many  of  these  charges.  They  raise  important  questions  about  the  ability  of  consumers  to  comparison  shop  and  to  ascertain  the  true  costs  of  competing  services.  I  hope  that  we  will  make  our 
 review  of  these  concerns  a  priority. 
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