[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6410 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6410

   To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit a provider of 
   telephone exchange service, exchange access, or commercial mobile 
  service from imposing a charge for number portability (other than a 
  one-time, separate charge to port a number), and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            December 7, 2006

 Mr. Ackerman introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL



   To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit a provider of 
   telephone exchange service, exchange access, or commercial mobile 
  service from imposing a charge for number portability (other than a 
  one-time, separate charge to port a number), and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Profit Honesty in Offering Number 
Emancipation Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. CHARGES FOR NUMBER PORTABILITY.

    (a) Prohibition.--Section 251 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 251) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsections (h) and (i) as subsections 
        (i) and (j), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (g) the following:
    ``(h) Charges for Number Portability.--
            ``(1) Prohibition.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), a 
        provider of telephone exchange service, exchange access, or 
        commercial mobile service (as defined in section 332(d)) shall 
        not impose any charge on a customer (whether imposed separately 
        or incorporated into the customer's monthly rates) to recover 
        the costs of providing number portability in accordance with 
        this section and Commission requirements thereunder.
            ``(2) One-time, separate charge.--
                    ``(A) In general.--A provider described in 
                paragraph (1) may impose a one-time, separate charge on 
                a customer in connection with porting a number to or 
                from another provider at the request of the customer.
                    ``(B) Amount.--The Commission shall set the maximum 
                amount of a charge allowed under subparagraph (A). Such 
                amount--
                            ``(i) shall be the same in any case; and
                            ``(ii) shall be equal to the approximate 
                        cost incurred by a provider in porting a 
                        number.
                    ``(C) Considerations.--In setting the maximum 
                amount under subparagraph (B), the Commission--
                            ``(i) may consider the ongoing costs of 
                        maintaining and operating a number portability 
                        system; and
                            ``(ii) may not consider costs recovered 
                        pursuant to regulations under this section (as 
                        in effect on the date of the enactment of the 
                        Profit Honesty in Offering Number Emancipation 
                        Act of 2006) for the implementation of number 
                        portability.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) apply 
only with respect to charges imposed on or after the date that is 90 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>