CTIA DEFENDS ABILITY TO MEET POOLING DATE, AMID NANC CONCERNS
CTIA laid out for FCC Common Carrier Bureau Chief Dorothy Attwood industry’s commitment to meet Nov. 24, 2002, deadline for implementing thousands-block number pooling. But group cited several remaining challenges, including testing deadlines and vendor readiness. CTIA letter followed one that N. American Numbering Council (NANC) subcommittee on wireless number portability sent to Attwood Nov. 20 on delays in intercarrier testing schedule for wireless number portability and pooling. NANC subcommittee, which said test setbacks could hurt industry’s ability to meet deadlines, said concerns included inability of several switch and network component vendors to provide upgrades until after Oct. 2001 and possibly not until after May 2002. It said several operation support system (OSS) vendors said they wouldn’t be able to provide system upgrades until after Oct. 2001 and possibly not until after May 2002. “Many nonparticipating providers” in top 100 markets haven’t yet said they would be ready for tests, letter said.
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Concerns emerged in NANC meeting last month on intercarrier testing that had been planned for Oct. 1. Several NANC members “expressed surprise that the wireless carriers had been unable to encourage their vendors to provide the necessary equipment and software on a timely basis,” NANC Chmn. Robert Atkinson said. CTIA response focused on pooling issue, saying industry continued to believe that simultaneously requiring wireless local number portability and pooling would risk on-time implementation of pooling deadline. On vendor readiness issues, CTIA said: “The wireless industry will continue to maintain an open dialogue with the vendor community to determine when the industry can expect to receive critical software deliverables.” Vendors’ comments that they wouldn’t be able to deliver upgrades on schedule were “significant setback” because they had direct bearing on timetable for completing implementation of pooling, CTIA wrote.
“The vendor industry has experienced significant staff reductions in the past year,” CTIA Senior Vp-Policy & Administration Michael Altschul wrote. “These force reductions coincide with several other mandates thrust upon the industry including E-911, CALEA and now priority access service capabilities. Wireless carriers continue to place significant pressures on their vendors who are, in turn, experiencing significant pressures in a difficult economic period.” CTIA said that based on pooling volume forecasts for next year, carriers had concerns about how that volume would affect both wireline and wireless networks. Assn. cited its own draft report that concluded carriers were expected to request numbering resources from about 160 areas that had been ordered to pool next year. In other areas, CTIA said it was closely monitoring potential impact of local number portability on E911. “There are concerns that in some scenarios, calls from ported subscribers may not be able to receive response calls from the public safety answering point,” CTIA wrote. Assn. also noted that all wireless carriers that are based on mobile identification numbers (MIN) must separate these numbers from mobile directory numbers (MDN) to complete calls of ported subscribers or to participate in pooling system. Prior to upgrades that will separate MIN from MDN, carriers only used single number -- MIN. “Separation of these two numbers is considered to be one of the most difficult steps in wireless portability and pooling implementation,” CTIA wrote. Group is conducting vendor and carrier surveys that should help to provide guidance on this upgrade, CTIA said.