Industry Presses FCC To OK Telcordia Contract; Neustar Cites Law Enforcement Gap
Telecom heavyweights urged the FCC to promptly approve the Telcordia contract to be local number portability administrator that was negotiated by North American Portability Management (NAPM). Officials from AT&T, CenturyLink, CTIA, NCTA, T-Mobile, USTelecom and Verizon met with commissioner aides…
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about the planned LNPA transition from Neustar to Telcordia (iconectiv). "The parties stated that the approval of the [master services agreement or MSA] is a prerequisite to the continued progress of the transition and that there are mounting costs to consumers for every day the transition is delayed," said a USTelecom filing posted Wednesday in docket 09-109. "The parties noted that all segments of the industry support the MSA and that those opposed to approval of the MSA and moving forward with the transition have had ample opportunity to be a part of the process." Neustar recently asked the FCC to force Ericsson-owned Telcordia to explain why it shouldn't be disqualified as LNPA due to possible misrepresentations about the citizenship of employees doing initial system coding work (see 1606020050). Telcordia and NAPM opposed the motion (see 1606130040 and 1606170027). The telecom officials told the commissioner aides "security issues have been exhaustively addressed and resolved and with the Commission staff and with the approval of relevant federal government stakeholders," said the filing. "In addition ... the cost savings in selecting Telcordia are exponential and would provide significant savings not only to companies of all sizes, but more importantly to consumers." In a separate filing, Neustar summarized a meeting with FCC officials about law enforcement authorities' transition to an "Enhanced Law Enforcement Platform." Neustar said it won't provide its Local Number Portability Enhanced Analytical Platform service in regions where it's no longer the Number Portability Administration Center administrator. Neustar said the MSA "sets the expectation that the ELEP service will not be available until after all NPAC regions are transitioned, thereby potentially creating a gap in the provision of the law enforcement service." Neustar also raised concerns about increased transition risk from the "compressed timeline and substantial reduction in testing" announced by PwC, NAPM's transition oversight manager.