LNP Alliance, OTI Urge FCC To Open Proposed Iconectiv Contract for Review

(see 1604010062). LNP Alliance members aren't allowed to review the MSA, creating an "unacceptable obstacle to smaller companies," said Eckert Seamans attorney James Falvey, on behalf of the LNP Alliance and New America's Open Technology Institute (OTI) in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 09-109. Falvey said the groups are concerned the FCC may be rushing the review process without adequate time for public comment, after a draft order to approve the contract circulated recently (see 1604080062). He said large carriers belonging to North American Portability Management (NAPM), which the FCC tasked with overseeing the transition, approved the contract in October, but it wasn't submitted until recently, giving others less time to review it. "This is not an even-handed process," and suggests iconectiv "is much more closely tied to the nation's largest carriers," Falvey said. The LNP Alliance hired an attorney and contractor to review the MSA, but the protective order is overly restrictive, he said: "This leaves us in an echo chamber with each other, but siloed off from our clients who know what issues matter most to each of the more than twenty smaller companies we represent." He said almost all of the MSA should be made public and non-NAPM Number Portability Administration Center users should be allowed to review the document the same way as NAPM users. He said the LNP Alliance and OTI agree with many of the points made by Neustar in its appeal to the full commission of the bureau's protective order (see 1604120038). The FCC had no comment Thursday.