Vonage Test of Direct Access to Telephone Numbers Appears Successful

By Ed Silverstein
TMCnet Contributor

Several VoIP providers are involved in a limited test whereby they get direct access to telephone numbers. To get an idea of what the results may be, Vonage has already released some data.

In a recent white paper, TransNexus (News - Alert) said the Vonage data shows it has reassigned over 80,000 numbers. They came from other carriers via port-ins.

Also, there were no routing failures during the Vonage (News - Alert) test. All port-ins and port-outs were successful, too. And some 572 new phone numbers were put into service.

About the only controversy came when Vonage reported a dispute with CenturyLink. It told Vonage it would only exchange traffic with Vonage if Vonage purchased dedicated TDM trunks in Phoenix and entered into an agreement with CenturyLink for the exchange of TDM traffic. In response, Vonage terminated the trial in Phoenix, where CenturyLink is located. It chose instead to port 30,000 numbers in Atlanta and Boston, TMCnet reported.

The idea behind the test was the FCC (News - Alert) wanting to see what happened if VoIP providers could get access to numbers without the use of a middleman, in this case a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC). The test should be concluded soon, with SmartEdgeNet, WilTel, IntelePeer (News - Alert) and Millicorp also taking part. Each will likely want to minimize the need for CLEC involvement.

“By eliminating the need for many of the middleman functions, VoIP peering will dramatically change the role of wholesale service providers in the interconnection process, as well as the role of retail service providers for enterprises,” TransNexus explained in the white paper.

However, the CLECs have a different view.

"The one thing to understand is that the need for the CLEC that has the PSTN [public switched telephone network] infrastructure doesn't go away because you can get numbers issued directly to you," John Abraham, senior vice president at Shango (News - Alert), a wholesale communications provider, was quoted by the white paper. “Their physical network facilities are still going to be critical to delivering service. So the reality it the VoIP guys will still need CLECs, but they will need them a little less."

More results from the test should be released next year.

Edited by Alisen Downey