The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) in a report Mon. said wirel...

(LNP), but the “regulatory recovery fee” also included Enhanced 911 (E911), CALEA and digital TTY service. The FCC’s deadline for LNP is Nov. 24, although some in the wireless industry say the Commission still hasn’t announced enough guidance on LNP implementation. CTIA said wireless carriers were within their right in attempting to recover LNP costs. The CPI report gave some details on collection and expenditures associated with LNP, but said several companies wouldn’t disclose what they intended to spend. Alltel and T- Mobile didn’t reveal how much they had spent so far Nov. 24 on LNP and they -- along with Nextel, Sprint and Verizon Wireless -- wouldn’t announce how much they planned to spend after that date, the CPI report said. The report said some of the smaller wireless companies said they had spent more on developing an LNP system than carriers with larger subscriber bases. Nextel already has spent $100 million on its 10.6 million subscribers, while Verizon Wireless said it needed to spend only $60 million to serve its 32.5 million customers, the CPI report said. The report also showed how much carriers charged consumers for regulatory recovery fees. AT&T Wireless charges the highest regulatory fee -- $1.75, Nextel $1.55 and Sprint $1.50. T-Mobile charges no regulatory fee and Verizon Wireless charges only a $0.05 fee, all of which it said was used for number pooling. AT&T Wireless and Nextel didn’t disclose how much of their regulatory fee went toward LNP or number pooling, but Sprint said $1.10 of its $1.50 fee went to LNP or pooling, the report said. The report, which is written like a news story, also featured comments from FCC Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta. The FCC doesn’t regulate prices and allows the marketplace to control how much carriers can charge for regulatory reimbursement, the CPI report quoted Muleta as saying. Some companies might include marketing costs as part of the regulatory fee, he was quoted as saying. CTIA said the Progress & Freedom Foundation projected that LNP would cost $1 billion in the first year and $850 million in the 2nd year to implement the technical system. “Wireless carriers are completely within their rights, as defined by the FCC, to recover their costs for number portability implementation,” a CTIA spokesman said. “In the highly competitive wireless industry -- prices have fallen 80% in 8 years -- costs generated by government programs are often passed on directly to consumers.”