NCTA Urges FCC to Launch Working Group on Completing IP Transition

NCTA urged the FCC to convene an industry working group to coordinate a process for completing the IP transition. “Since 2004, the Commission consistently has recognized the importance of transitioning voice networks to IP technology,” said a filing posted this week (docket 21-479). “While significant progress has been made over the last two decades, the IP transition has stalled, with no clear target date for all networks in the United States to fully operate in an IP environment.”

Most IP-based providers have “struggled to negotiate” interconnection arrangements with many incumbent local exchange carriers, NCTA said. “The continued need to use TDM [time-division multiplexing] equipment for those network interconnections imposes ongoing and unnecessary costs and inefficiencies on IP-based network providers by requiring them to either maintain their own TDM equipment or use a third party to facilitate the TDM interconnection.”