The N.H. PUC approved assignment of phone numbers to a CLEC-cable...
The N.H. PUC approved assignment of phone numbers to a CLEC-cable joint venture to provide VoIP-based phone services via cable in 28 rural communities in central and eastern N.H. The PUC approved thousand-block number assignments to the partnership of…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
CLEC IDT America and cable company MetroCast. Under their business arrangement, IDT will provide wholesale VoIP services, PSTN interconnection, number portability, E- 911 and directory assistance to MetroCast, which in turn will use its cable facilities to connect to its retail telephony customers. MetroCast also will handle all retail phone service sales, billing, disputes and general retail customer relations. End-users will have no dealings with IDT. The IDT-MetroCast deal resembles business arrangements made between Sprint and various cable companies for competitive VoIP-based phone service to cable customers in rural areas around the country. Under the order (Case 06-169), MetroCast must obtain a state CLEC certificate, file its rate schedule with the PUC and adhere to numbering restrictions that bar it from using its numbers for anything other than phone service to its cable end-user customers in the towns where it provides cable video service. Me. is one of a handful of states with one area code, 603, covering the entire state. The PUC said the IDT-MetroCast VoIP business arrangement is the first of its type to get numbering resources in N.H., but said assignment of numbers in blocks of 1,000 to this unique business arrangement “appropriately balances concern over efficient use of scarce numbering resources with consumers’ interest in having greater competitive choice.”