NANC on Track to Meet or Beat May, June Deadlines for Reports to FCC, Chairman Says

an update for Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith posted Tuesday. He said the NANC is to consider a CATA draft on an April 27 teleconference, before a May 7 report deadline, and consider NNP and TFAM drafts at its May 29 meeting, before a June 7 deadline. He believes "working groups are making substantial progress" on their tasks. A CATA group "reached consensus that the industry should be responsible for standing up" a "General Administrator" (GA) for the call authentication framework in the "very near term" without a formal proceeding, though the group wants the FCC's endorsement, Kavulla wrote. There's "strong opposition" to a possible commission request for proposals for a GA and differing opinions on who should be on its board. A baseline draft "includes sections outlining the role and selection of a Policy Administrator," and on how industry parties "might be incented toward and monitored for their progress" toward framework participation. He said another working group sees three plausible NNP solutions: "commercial agreements, non-geographic local routing numbers (LRNs) and nationwide implementation LRNs." The group "has concluded that the modifications to the SS7 signaling parameters that would be required to implement the GR-2982-CORE specification make it an inferior solution," with comments also negative in FCC proceedings. The TFAM group has three subgroups, he wrote: one that "has made substantial progress in identifying rules that would need to be adjusted"; another considering a secondary market for toll-free numbers has "addressed about half of the questions" from a September NPRM; and a third looking at set-asides or reservation of certain toll-free numbers "is still in fact-finding mode" and plans to question registry database administrator Somos on "what kinds of abuse of the existing system may have happened" and on possible changes.