LNP Administrator Transition on Track, but Timeline 'Faces Significant Risks,' NAPM Says
The local number portability administrator transition timetable "faces significant risks," North American Portability Management said in its monthly update Friday in FCC docket 09-109. The planned "final acceptance date" of May 25 for a new Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) system "remains unchanged," but "several issues and vendor nonconformances related to interface specifications have been identified and require mitigation," NAPM said. "With additional systems testing still remaining, new issues may arise that require resolution and add pressure to the program timeline." The commission chose Telcordia's iconectiv over incumbent Neustar to run the LNP system, designed to allow consumers to keep their phone numbers when changing carriers.
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The development of hardware and software "is progressing in accordance" with a schedule despite the additional work "needed to address poorly documented NPAC requirements and specification non-conformances discovered during industry testing," NAPM said. "However, there is little remaining buffer in the schedule to accommodate additional delays that may arise if new issues are found during testing."
Iconectiv "remains on track to begin transitioning LNPA services in March and to complete the transition May 25, 2018," said a company spokeswoman Tuesday. "Testing of the final software for larger service providers that have direct connections and smaller service providers that use the web interface is underway. ... The Final Acceptance date is the date at which NAPM has accepted the completed transition. The final cutover will occur a few days before that."
NAPM noted a continuing conflict with Neustar over PwC, the transition oversight manager (TOM). "Disagreement by the incumbent LNPA about the TOM's authority to make transition decisions as well as enforce dispute resolution are leading to issues with vendor testing issue mitigation and contingency rollback planning," the filing said. NAPM also cited lack of agreement with Neustar "regarding the incumbent LNPA's obligations with respect to parallel operations," particularly the incumbent's disagreement "regarding its obligation to resume NPAC operations in the event of an industry-led rollback."
"We appreciate that the TOM is readily acknowledging the significant risks that Neustar has been concerned about for several months," Neustar emailed Tuesday. "In fact, these risks are particularly heightened here, where one system is shutting down and another entirely new system is coming on line. This is one of the reasons why we proposed a workable, cost-effective rollback solution more than a year ago -- and why we continue to be in favor of full transparency and a viable fallback plan in the event of a failure." NAPM didn't comment further.
The LNP Alliance is concerned about "unanswered questions and unresolved issues," though it's "hopeful that there will be a seamless transition." The TOM "has recognized that there are very tight timeframes and no extra buffer time to contend with remediation issues resulting from testing after the introduction" of an NPAC "Software Release B," said an alliance statement. "There is also significant work" remaining "to define rollback procedures, to coordinate the rollback requirements of iconectiv and Neustar, and to obtain commitments from each provider as to those requirements. It would be best to invest the necessary time and resources in advance to ensure that a rollback is not necessary, because it would be extremely costly and confusing for the industry and consumers. ... If more time is necessary to get the process right, the quality of the Transition should not be sacrificed to meet preordained deadlines."
It's "critical" that an LNPA Working Group be reformed "as soon as possible and that it contain broad industry representation," added the LNP Alliance, which said the group was recently disbanded when a North American Numbering Council charter expired. The alliance is a consortium of small and medium-sized providers, said a representative: Comspan Communications, TelNet Worldwide, the Northwest Telecommunications Association and the Michigan Internet and Telecommunications Alliance.