Cost Shouldn't Be Only Factor Considered in LNPA Selection, Frontier Says
The next local number portability administrator should “retain the same level of functionality and service currently offered” without the need for investing in entirely new infrastructure, Kathleen Abernathy, Frontier Communications executive vice president-external affairs, wrote the FCC Wednesday, said an…
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ex parte notice posted Friday in docket 09-109. The LNPA must be able to support disaster recovery and emergency preparedness, ecosystem monitoring and management and mass porting capabilities, Frontier said. Retrofitting the system to include those functions later “would be unacceptable," the filing said. The cost of providing LNPA services is a significant factor, Frontier said, but “should not be the deciding factor when so much is at stake.” The transition to a new LNPA “simply to maintain the status-quo -- a seamless porting process -- will be costly for all, and disproportionately more costly for smaller carriers,” the company said. The “disruption caused by a potentially poor transition and faulty LNP process will not only require additional funds, but runs the risk of causing significant damage to the system that enables a competitive market for voice services,” Frontier said. Telcordia, seeking to win the LNPA contract from Neustar, is "confident that the FCC will be keeping the best interests of consumers at the forefront as it finalizes the LNPA selection," Wiltshire Grannis telecom lawyer John Nakahata said on Friday. Frontier's comments "as well as the accumulation of comments from the public safety community, show the growing consensus that the botched LNPA vendor selection must be fixed by the FCC," Neustar said in a statement. "The only voices in support of Ericcson came from the same large companies that made the recommendation at the expense of small- and medium-sized companies, public safety interests, and industry competition."