The FCC’s trial giving VoIP providers direct access...

The FCC’s trial giving VoIP providers direct access to numbers has been a “resounding success,” said the largest trial participant, Vonage, in a report released Friday (http://bit.ly/1i8eJUa). Direct access has helped advance key policy goals like IP interconnection, Vonage said. “The trial confirmed what Vonage has long explained: direct access to numbers furthers the public interest without harming call routing, number porting, or intercarrier compensation.” During the trial, Vonage and Verizon entered into an IP interconnection agreement, the VoIP provider said, and other companies are currently negotiating interconnection agreements with Vonage. “Even this narrow trial, in other words, facilitated IP interconnection agreements,” it said. Vonage call routing and number routing both proceeded successfully during the trial, and no intercarrier compensation disputes have arisen in connection with its directly assigned numbers, it said. Vonage did face two obstacles, it said: First, one carrier was “slow to enable direct porting to Vonage.” Second, “some carriers proposed inefficient PSTN interconnection arrangements that will likely delay the transition to IP interconnection,” it said. Vonage decided not to deploy numbers in the Phoenix area because CenturyLink “demanded inefficient routing arrangements,” it said. “CenturyLink’s approach is a step backwards with respect to the Commission’s goal of transitioning to all-IP networks.” Generally though, the trial was a success, and the commission should “expressly recognize that interconnected VoIP providers may demonstrate facilities readiness by showing the combination of an agreement between the interconnected VoIP provider and its underlying carrier and an interconnection agreement between that underlying carrier and the relevant ILEC,” it said. CenturyLink did not respond by our deadline to a request for comment.