Instead of using a fee based on a percentage, the FCC is hearing recommendations to charge $1 to $1.20 per telephone number, whether it is a wireless or wire-line number. The proposed system might be fairer, but it could force telecommunications managers at companies to assess how many unused phone numbers they have in order to avoid the added cost.

Boothby also said that while the FCC says it intends to deregulate certain services, such as broadband, it will be up to individual companies to make certain cost savings are passed through to customers.

She urged companies to lobby state commissions and the FCC to voice concerns about their businesses. IT managers can start by joining small trade associations and conducting letter-writing campaigns, she said.

Darrell White, an IT manager at DTE Energy Inc. in Detroit, said he agreed that communications services will increase, and said Boothby's advice to write letters makes sense. "As a utility, we're pretty good at the letter-writing approach," he said.

Gary Oscarson, manager of information systems at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City, said he doesn't track network services costs such as T1 lines, but he has noticed that cell phone service plans have been steadily declining in cost, a factor that works in his favor. He is attending the conference because he is in the initial stages of planning a distribution of 50,000 cell phones to LDS missionaries.