NAPM, Others Mount Full-Court Press for FCC Approval of Telcordia Contract

The LNP Alliance and New America's Open Technology Institute (OTI) asked the commission to give smaller carriers, "who are just now gaining access to portions" of the MSA, "sufficient time" to review the lengthy document. They said NAPM, "a consortium of billion-dollar-plus revenue companies," is urging the FCC to approve the MSA rapidly, but that "would deprive smaller carriers of their right to review the MSA" before they are effectively forced to sign it, the two groups said. Executives of six other parties voiced concerns to agency officials "about the perceived rush to approve" the MSA. Parties on both sides made filings Friday and Monday in commission docket 09-109. The FCC, which has a draft order pending to approve the MSA, didn’t comment.

LNPA incumbent Neustar said Telcordia parent Ericsson was creating "false deadlines" that benefit its interest. "After it took seven months to negotiate a contract, another five months to have it submitted to the FCC, plus another month of delay caused by filing the contract under seal -- not to mention having to start over beginning in March to address national security concerns stemming from its failure to live up to its commitments -- this latest rush rings hollow," a Neustar spokesperson emailed. "A transition of this magnitude must be done correctly, and the Commission shouldn’t put the transition in jeopardy because Ericsson claims urgency.”

NAPM expanded on its recent arguments in favor of quick FCC approval of the new contract (see 1605030051). It said the proposed MSA wouldn't change numerous things, among them: the Number Portability Administration Center services that NPAC users receive; the choices available for users to connect to NPAC; the interfaces between NPAC and its users; and the process for improving the MSA over time by working through the LNPA Working Group and the North American Numbering Council (NANC) to develop new "statements of work" for the NAPM to negotiate with iconectiv on behalf of industry.

The new contract would make some changes for the better, including by achieving significant savings in cost, which would be "significantly less than half" the "nearly $500M per year" cost of Neustar-provided NPAC services, NAPM said. Smaller carriers that test new systems will recover their costs through dramatically lower rates, it said, also citing improved data security and privacy provisions and other improvements. Delaying MSA approval, threatens to push back the current projected timetable for completing the LNPA transition from Neustar to Telcordia by Q3 2017 into Q1 2018 due to heavy holiday porting, it said.

NAPM said the deadline "has long passed" for raising the issues critics are citing for a delay. It said the MSA technical requirements were developed long ago with industry input and FCC approval, as was the NANC's recommendation for accepting Telcordia's bid. The arguments for a delay constitute untimely petitions for reconsideration that must be denied, NAPM said.

NAPM said the LNP Alliance has been able to participate at every stage of the proceeding and transition, and its members were free to join the NAPM, either directly or through broader alliances or trade groups to spread the costs. "The simple truth is that" NAPM, iconectiv, transition manager PwC and the FCC "have listened to each and every concern that the LNP Alliance has expressed since its formation, and taken these concerns fully into account when making any decision," NAPM said. "The few parties who complain about a lack of transparency overlook the fact that the very information they seek, including details about transition dates and milestones, will only be confirmed once the New MSA is executed. The New MSA of course permits adjustment to those details as needed ... so prompt approval of the MSA is the best means for providing the transparency that the parties seeking delay are requesting.”

“It makes no sense to say that changes can be made later, when the NAPM carriers have negotiated the 2,800-page baseline document with no input from smaller carriers," LNP Alliance attorney James Falvey emailed us Monday." We have already detailed the manner in which the NAPM dues structure has effectively excluded all small carriers from the process. Delays to date in implementing the Transition have been caused by iconectiv, as detailed in our ex parte [filing]. We will continue to ask the Commission for 60 days, until June 15, to review the MSA.”

“The fact that the MSA was immediately placed on circulation for Commission approval has heightened the Parties’ concern that this MSA, which contains terms and conditions that may be harmful to smaller carriers and consumers, could be authorized without any input from smaller carriers and consumer representatives," the LNP Alliance and OTI said in a filing. An ATL Communications official cited the concerns of executives from five companies and a carrier group.

LNP Alliance concerns that small carriers would incur large upfront transition costs that would swamp savings "have no basis in reality," Telcordia said. "For those small carriers that access the NPAC through a service bureau, they have no new charges from Telcordia due to the transition," it said. "They will, however, see their share of the regionwide LNPA fee drop dramatically. And since they do not interact with the NPAC, they would not have to undertake new training or testing.”

USTelecom disputed LNP Alliance concerns about Telcordia's ability to remain neutral, or that the transition will be especially disruptive and costly to smaller carriers. It also disputed that small carriers had no voice in the process. "USTelecom represents small and medium carriers comparable in size to the LNP Alliance participants, and various state commissions represented the public interest ... at the time of selection," it said.