Iconectiv TFNA Petition Gets Allies, Pushback
The iconectiv petition asking the FCC to move to a competitive bidding process for selecting a toll-free numbering administrator (TFNA) (see 2006300003) got no clear industry consensus in docket 20-174 postings Thursday. AT&T said the TFNA's tariff use "is an…
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anomaly" compared with competitive bidding and contracts the FCC uses for other numbering administrators. Going to a competitive process for the local number portability administrator resulted in hugely reduced costs, it said. Also backing the petition, USTelecom said FCC use of competitive bidding for numbering services shows market-based approaches lead to more efficiency. Now isn't the time to change TFNAs since the pandemic has been a major disruption to so many businesses already, and such a switch raises the risk of some kind of interruption that could hurt those relying on toll-free numbers, Unisys said. No one has shown that incumbent TFNA Somos hasn't been doing the job adequately, it said. Iconectiv should be commended for pointing out lack of Somos transparency, but its petition is meritless because it says TFN rates have gone up without reason when it's common knowledge Somos has been doing sizable technology upgrades, responsible organization Vanity International said. "This is nothing but a land grab by a 3rd party venture fund," it said. Iconectiv's complaint about use of a tariff-based approach would hold true no matter who is TFNA, and it would be nice to have multiple providers, but that isn't technologically feasible now, said EZ Texting. Somos is an independent, nonprofit TFNA, and someone else selected through competitive bidding might focus on cost control to the exclusion of protecting the public from scammers using toll-free numbers, Duke Energy said. Establishing a competitive bidding process for selecting a TFNA needs to carry guarantees the new TFNA provides the scam protection services Somos does, it said. Make sure new rules don't significantly interfere with or require changes to the way providers interface with the TFNA and don't require costly changes, said ATIS. Somos, in posting on meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Jessica Rosenworcel, said any consideration of changing processes to select a TFNA and changing the tariff structure requires issuing an NPRM. It said the current system "is working well." Its comments said similar.