da-parish Blogs

da-parish Blogs
Blogging is a new "feature" of the internet. It allows an easier way to update web pages and gives a "log" type setup with some automatic features. This is the second Blog I've created, the first can be seen here. Archives 10 February 2002 07 April 2002 03 August 2003 17 August 2003 28 September 2003 05 October 2003 12 October 2003 19 October 2003 02 November 2003 09 November 2003 16 November 2003 30 November 2003 18 January 2004 08 February 2004 15 February 2004 29 February 2004 07 March 2004 21 March 2004 28 March 2004 04 April 2004 11 April 2004 18 April 2004 25 April 2004 20 June 2004 11 July 2004 16 January 2005 06 February 2005 06 March 2005 13 March 2005 20 March 2005 03 April 2005 10 April 2005 17 April 2005 01 May 2005 19 June 2005 10 July 2005 24 July 2005 31 July 2005 11 September 2005 18 September 2005 25 September 2005	2003/10/20 FCC WTB: Wireless Local Number Portability A long time in coming, the Wireless Local Number Portability is one month away. What this means is you will now be able to take your current wireless number with you if you switch carriers (you will need a new phone though). Both New Orleans and Baton Rouge are listed in the top 100 cities according to the 2000 census, therefore cell phone carriers must allow customers to take their existing phone numbers with them to a new carrier by November 24. Other cities will have six months from a request to May 24, 2004, whichever is later. The cell phone number portability has been a long time in coming. Carriers have managed to get it postponed at least two years if I remember correctly. The next phone battle will be portability between wired and wireless phones. Imagine being able to drop your home phone coverage with BellSouth or Cox and switching the number to a cell phone. You can now carry what used to be your home phone with you every where. Of course, this is only a good idea if you don't have any teenagers in the house. I'm not sure how far off into the future this one will be. Getting back to just cell phone number portability. If you want to do this, plan ahead and be patient. Your new carrier is going to need some specific details about your old carrier, the phone number is not going to be enough. Cingular Wireless has posted a short checklist of what you should be aware of. Verizon Wireless offers their own FAQ. Again, the caveat will be that although you can transfer your phone number, you will most likely need a new phone. The reason for this is because most cell phone carriers have special programming on their phones or they may use a different technology. There is no standard cellular protocol within the US, which means we have at least three different technologies available for cell phone usage. Your carrier is the one that sets the technology and you phone needs to match the carriers choice. Be good to yourself, Westley Annis westley@da-parish.com ============================================================= Got Tech Questions? We wrote the book! AnswerSquad Author of Word Hacks - ORA Pub. Fall 2003 posted by Westley at 10/20/2003 10:53:09 AM HOME