WASHINGTON -- CTIA and three big wireless carriers filed at the FCC another petition challenging local number portability, although some see it as only a desperate attempt to get the rules sidelined after a major court defeat.

CTIA, Alltel, AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless filed an 'expedited petition' at the commission late yesterday afternoon asking that the LNP rules be struck down on jurisdictional grounds. The companies contend the FCC 'lacks the authority to impose' the upcoming Nov. 24 deadline for LNP implementation.

'In the case of wireless LNP, however, the commission invoked its 'implied authority' to impose the mandate, rather than looking to Section 251(b)(2), which intentionally limited the FCC's authority to impose LNP and specifically excluded CMRS. Accordingly, the Joint Petitioners stated that the wireless LNP rule exceeds the commission's statutory authority and must be rescinded,' said the filing.

The petitioners say that although the recent D.C. Circuit Court ruling supported the commission's reasoning in not forbearing from the rules, it didn't rule on the 'merits of the statutory authority agreement...' The petition essentially is a request for further re-examination of the commission's reasoning in enforcing the rules.

In the filing, the groups say they want the FCC to rule, so they 'can have their day in court before the fast approaching November 24, 2003 deadline and because carriers already have numerous mandates (e.g., E911) and limited resources.'

Groups that are pushing to get LNP in place say the filing is just another legal tactic in a dwindling number of possible options to get the LNP deadline pushed back or nullified. Brad Ramsay, general counsel for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, said the petition probably would die a bureaucratic death at the FCC. The commission is unlikely to act because the filing looks like a 'very out-of-date petition for reconsideration.' In it's ruling a couple of weeks ago, a D.C. District Court said CTIA's original petition was filed years too late to be valid.