Telcordia Wants FCC to Bring Back Number Portability Competition
By Jill Morgan
When number portability was launched to promote competition, the FCC adopted the recommendation of the North American Numbering Council (NANC) and created seven competing regional number portability databases built around the seven original Bell companies.
Carriers at the time could choose any one of them as a number portability provider. Today, seven portability databases are no longer necessary; the old RBOC system merged and morphed into fewer major carriers, leaving NeuStar the sole remaining number portability provider in the US market.
Telcordia, which markets its Number Portability Gateway to carriers, petitioned the FCC in June to reopen the bidding process so other number portability providers can emerge and create choice for carriers seeking the service. The company argues that the FCC never intended to let a single portability provider own the market. Telcordia execs say US service providers would save at least $60 million a year through lower prices and other incentives if there were several competing companies providing number portability services.
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Amp'd Mobile Files Chapter 11
By Jill Morgan
MVNO Amp'd Mobile filed for Chapter 11 on June 1 after it was unable to obtain enough money to meet its debts. Among its creditors is Boston Communications Group Inc., a telecom biller that says it’s owed $2.8 million.
According to the Amp’d’s bankruptcy filing in a Delaware US Bankruptcy Court, unsustainable growth and back office systems problems led to its financial problems.
Appeals Court Rules VoIP Providers Must Pay USF
By Jill Morgan
A U.S Appeals Court in June ruled that VoIP providers must now pay into the Universal Service Fund, handing a defeat to the sector of the telecom industry that fought long and hard against the fee.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld an FCC order already in effect and is limited to VoIP providers that interconnect with the PSTN. The USF subsidizes phone service in under-served and rural areas. The program also subsidizes Internet connections in schools and libraries.
The case involved two specific issues. First, VoIP providers argued that the carrier’s carriers rule forces VoIP providers to pay twice into the fund; second, VoIP providers want to be required to pay less than traditional voice providers into the fund.
Ericsson recently announced that it has offered to buy billing and OSS vendor, LHS, in a deal that values the billing and customer care software company at around euro310 million ($418 million). Ericsson will pay euro22.50 ($30.33) per share under an agreement by which it will buy 55.1 percent of LHS' shares and has committed to buy an additional 20 percent, securing 75.1 percent of the company. Frankfurt-based LHS has approximately 550 staff and sales in 2006 reached euro71.6 million ($96.5 million).
In a second merger May, Ericsson has signed an agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares of Drutt Corporation, a provider of service delivery platform (SDP) solutions. The company’s product, Mobile Service Delivery Platform, enables service providers to charge for any content to any kind of mobile device, over any mobile network and delivery channel. MSDP is commercially deployed in more than 60 telecom operators in 35 countries.
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