OTI Files Report with FCC Urging Agency to Delay Naming New Numbering Portability Administrator
Report Describes Potential Negative Impacts on Market Competition, Consumers and Public Safety
Press Release
March 9, 2015
Today the Open Technology Institute at New America published and filed a report with the FCC recommending that the Commission delay approving the appointment of Telcordia as the new Local Number Portability Administrator (LNPA), replacing Neustar, until the agency considers the potential impacts on market competition, public safety and the IP technology transition.
The report concludes that “the Commission should review and clarify the future role of the number portability system and the LNPA through a public notice and comment rulemaking before finalizing a vendor selection.”
The report, filed with the FCC today, describes the enormous and evolving public interest impact of the nation’s telephone number portability system. It reviews the concerns of a diverse range of stakeholders about uncertainties that remain about how replacing Neustar with Telcordia, a subsidiary of telecom equipment vendor Ericsson, could impact costs imposed on non-national carriers, value-added services, the competitive neutrality of the LNPA, the future of IP number porting, and other concerns.
Last week the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau recommended that the Commission approve, without further public notice and comment, the recommendation of the industry advisory committee (the North American Numbering Council, or NANC) to appoint Telcordia to a 5-year term as LNPA when Neustar’s contract expires on June 30.
The following statement can be attributed to report co-author Michael Calabrese, Director, New America’s Wireless Future Project:
“Rather than rubber stamp the dominant carrier push to install Ericsson, one of their captive suppliers, as the new number portability administrator, the Commission should take this opportunity to reconsider the future role of the number portability system and its administrator in relation to competition, consumer welfare and the IP transition. The evolving and still incomplete role of the number portability system should be first and foremost an issue of competition and consumer protection. And yet the process to date has shut out and ignored the concerns of competitive carriers, consumers and even public safety and law enforcement agencies.”
The following statement can be attributed to report co-author J. Armand Musey, managing director of Goldin Associates LLC and a leading expert on telecom and satellite sector issues:
“The primary role of the number portability administrator is to make it easy for subscribers to change providers while keeping their phone number and thereby increase competition. This is completely contrary to the interests of larger carriers, which is to reduce costly subscriber switching to competitors. To the extent selection of a new number portability administrator is based on the recommendation of the largest carriers themselves, the Commission risks taking the advice of the fox on how to construct the proverbial hen house.”
The OTI report can found here.