ICANNWatch | NeuStar bungles number portability?

NeuStar bungles number portability?
posted by tbyfield on Wednesday December 10 2003, @03:01AM

NeuStar, a perennial favorite in the soap opera that is ICANN, got some minor mentions in unexpected context this week. In "Cellphone Number Transfer Hits a Snag," 5 December New York Times article (free reg req'd, articles disappear [not], etc.) on the recent tribulations of consumers who try to exercise their newfound number-portability rights, notes that the problems at AT&T Wireless -- mainly long delays -- are "more pronounced than at other carriers."

The article concludes:

Some analysts speculated that AT&T Wireless might have longer-than-average delays because it uses a different transfer processing service than the other mobile companies. It uses NeuStar Inc., based in Sterling, Va., for automating its number switches while the other carriers all use TSI [Telecommunication Services Inc.]. But Venkates Swaminathan, a senior vice president at NeuStar, said he did not think that either AT&T Wireless or NeuStar was performing less well than the competition because the troubles spanned the whole industry.

The FCC seems to disagree with Mr. Swaminathan: it sent a letter demanding answers to AT&TW. AT&TW disagrees too: a Washington Post article ("AT&TW Wireless Shifts Blame for Portability Problems") leads off "AT&TW Wireless officials yesterday blamed software and computing problems at Washington-based NeuStar Inc. for a high number of complaints from consumers who have tried to transfer their cell-phone numbers between carriers." (The article fails to produce any smoking-gun quotes from AT&TW officials.)

The same WP article quotes one FCC source as saying the regulatory agency "has launched two investigations of AT&TW Wireless, including one by the commission's enforcement bureau."

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