North American Portability Management filed a status report for January on the planned local number portability (LNP) administrator transition that was mostly the same as the report it filed for December. The NAPM update posted Friday in docket 95-911 did note various details of the activities of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the transition oversight manager, including that it had invited 10,000 contacts to register for its outreach webcast on Wednesday. There, PwC officials outlined a preliminary timetable running through 3Q 2017 for the planned LNP administrator transition from Neustar to Ericsson's iconectiv (see 1601270069). Small carriers and consumer groups have voiced concerns about what they see as the lack of greater transparency in the process (see 1601150070).

AT&T is making changes at the top, as the company looks to tie its services together following the takeover of DirecTV, the carrier confirmed Monday. Ralph de la Vega, head of the wireless part of the company, was named vice chairman over the business and international parts of the company, a company official confirmed. John Stankey, who ran the DirecTV, Internet and TV units, will now be in charge of wireless as CEO of the entertainment group.

Assist Wireless and others asked a court to dismiss their challenge to an FCC decision regarding use of an Oklahoma Historical Map to restrict Lifeline tribal coverage in the state, according to a motion filed Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit they said was unopposed (Assist Wireless v. FCC, No. 15-1324). The companies are backing an Oklahoma Corporation Commission request to delay the Feb. 9 implementation of the new map, and seeking 180 more days (see 1601190044).

Level 3 asked the FCC for a temporary waiver for classifying certain phone numbers it has provided to interconnected VoIP providers or other noncarrier entities under a 2015 agency order (see 1506180060). Level 3 said the numbers that haven’t been assigned to an end user by the noncarrier recipients shouldn't be required to be classified as “intermediate” instead of “assigned.” A “limited waiver of the rules is necessary because it is technically infeasible for Level 3 to upgrade the information technology” for a key product, conduct a phone number inventory and modify contractual relationships in time for a utilization report due Monday, the company said in a petition posted Wednesday in docket 13-97. It said it also sought the waiver for applications for "growth numbering resources" it may submit through July 31.

The FCC's planned local number portability administrator transition from Neustar to Ericsson's iconectiv is expected to last through Q3 2017, said officials from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the transition oversight manager, on an agency-promoted webcast Wednesday. Various testing regimes of software and other elements of new LNP administrator systems are expected to begin by the end of this quarter and continue through Q1 2017, they said. "Data migration" is expected to "go live" in early 2017, they said. All of the projected time frames are preliminary and will depend on the finalization of various contracts and agreements.

Windstream said its Carrier E-Access services gained "CE 2.0 certification" from MEF, an industry alliance promoting ethernet technical development. The E-Access services were "stringently tested" and found to meet or exceed all related CE 2.0 service level requirements, which are the "highest and most current industry standards," the company said in a Tuesday news release.

USTelecom said it's starting a campaign to urge the FCC to consider the "enormous growth and investment" in the business marketplace as it conducts its special access review. "Newly released 2013 data collected by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) show a multitude of providers -- cable, fiber and fixed wireless -- compete for business customers in a thriving marketplace," a release said. Competition is working and prices are declining for backhaul and other special access services, USTelecom said. "A major game-changer is entry of the nation’s major cable operators, which are using their large network footprints to serve multiple business locations," the group said. "New competition from cable and other providers isn’t captured in the FCC’s 2013 data, which at best provides a snapshot of a single point in time. In just the last two years -- 2014 and 2015 -- cable business service units have invested an estimated $6 billion in capital, while competitive fiber providers an estimated $9 billion." It urged the FCC to recognize the marketplace changes and modernize its policies. Comments in the FCC's broad special access rulemaking were due Friday but haven't been posted yet because the agency is closed due to Winter Storm Jonas.

Verizon issued a transparency report for the second half of 2015 on the types of information demands it receives from government and the types of data it discloses in response. "We received almost 140,000 demands for customer information from United States law enforcement," the telco said in a release Monday on the U.S. and international reports. "The number of demands that we have received each year has been fairly stable since we made our first report three years ago. In fact, over this period, the number of demands in each category we report (i.e., warrants, orders, subpoenas) has also been generally consistent. Protecting our customers’ privacy will always be a bedrock commitment at Verizon. While we have a legal obligation to provide customer information to law enforcement in response to lawful demands, we take seriously our duty to provide such information only when authorized by law."

Vonage moved to support an FCC order giving interconnected VoIP providers direct access to phone numbers, in the face of a legal challenge from NARUC in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 1601050050). Vonage said its ability to compete in the voice services market would be impaired if NARUC's petition for review is granted. "Having direct access to telephone numbers allows Vonage to reduce reliance on third-party vendors, achieve direct interconnection with other telecommunications providers, and retain control over call routing and the quality of service provided to customers," the company said in a court motion Thursday seeking permission to intervene in support of the commission in the case (NARUC v. FCC, No. 15-1497). Vonage said direct numbering access allows for provision of higher-quality and lower-cost services. Even a partial reversal of the FCC order could be harmful if it delays implementation of the order, the company said.

The second webcast under the Local Number Portability Administrator (LNPA) Transition Outreach Plan will be Wednesday, 3-4 p.m. EST, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Thursday. The webcast will be hosted by officials of PricewatershouseCoopers, which is the transition oversight manager, the PN said. The company's officials discussed their general outreach efforts on a Dec. 9 webcast (see 1512090076).