COM 536 Public Policy in Telecommunications
Final Examination

Standing on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk, Martin Cooper, a Motorola engineer, made what is believed to have been the first cellular phone call ever 30 years ago this month. Using the bulky contraption he'd built himself, he dialed his competitors at Bell Labs, just to let them know he'd beaten them to the punch. We've come a long way since Mr. Cooper's first call, though not quite as far as we need to go before wireless phones fulfill their ultimate promise.

High on the list of shortcomings is the fact that customers can't keep their number if they change service providers. If Verizon Wireless or Cingular had been around 30 years ago to sell Mr. Cooper a service plan, he would have had to stick with the company all these years, unless he'd been willing to surrender his number. This lack of number "portability" is an oddly paralyzing feature for a product that is all about promising hypermobility.

For years, the industry has been stubbornly fighting a proposed Federal Communications Commission rule that would allow consumers to retain their number when they change carriers within the same calling area. Facing a November deadline, the wireless industry was in federal court last week, once again complaining about the cost of complying with the rule, and questioning the F.C.C.'s authority to impose it.