In case you missed it, here is there latest update from the Transition Committee. We are almost done with the plans for the election and will meeting with the FCC in early November to present the plan to them. It is hoped the nomination process for the new SMS/800, Inc. board will happen in early January.

SMS/800 Transition Committee Update

To all Resp Orgs and SCP Owner/Operators:

The SMS/800 Transition Committee continues to work toward the transition of responsibility for the SMS/800 Tariff from the Bell Operating Companies to SMS/800, Inc. under an industry-elected Board of Directors. We believe we have defined a path for this transition, and will be scheduling an industry-wide call for all Resp Orgs and SCP Owner/Operators, to review our recommendations. In short, the path is as follows:

1) Create rules and requirements for nominating and electing a Board of Directors that represents the toll-free number industry;
2) Provide materials related to the election of the industry-lead Board of Director to all Resp Orgs and SCP Owner/Operators;
3) Seek feedback and guidance from all Resp Orgs and SCP Owner/Operators;
4) Seek feedback and guidance from the FCC;
5) Hold fair and open nominations, and elections, to elect a Board that represents the toll-free number industry; and
6) Work with the exiting SMS/800, Inc. Board to transition responsibility of the tariff.

The SMS/800 Transition Committee is working diligently to define the rules for electing a Board of Directors that represents the toll-free number industry, and oversee the creation of such a Board. Once elected, the Board members, as representatives of the toll-free industry, will work together to create and implement the rules related to the transition of the SMS/800 tariff. As such, this Board will act as an Advisory Board to the existing SMS/800, Inc. Board, until the responsibility of the SMS/800 tariff can be transitioned. Upon final approval of the FCC for the change in control, this elected Advisory Board will become the new Board of Directors for SMS/800, Inc. With this objective in mind, the SMS/800 Transition Committee:

• Has developed a Conflict of Interest policy and is preparing a draft Nomination process packet (to be complete before an industry wide call);
• Has requested a meeting with the FCC to provide information and solicit feedback and guidance;
• Is planning to host an industry wide call, including all Resp Orgs and SCP Owner/Operators, prior to the FCC meeting to share our findings and seek feedback and guidance;
• Is planning a target of Q1 2012 for holding our first election of an Advisory Board/Board of Directors (pending FCC buy-in); and
• Is planning to host a follow-up call with all Resp Orgs and SCP Owner/Operators after the FCC meeting, to more formally define the transition process.

Please review all emails coming from SMS/800, Inc or SMS/800 Transition Committee, and please watch for updates in the “Transition Documents” section of www.sms800.com.

SMS/800 Transition Committee.

Thursday I met with the FCC Enforcement Bureau and learned something I never previously understood. If all the rest of you understood this, please don’t hurt my feelings by telling me – there are people out there who consider me one of the experts.

For a long time many of us have complained that the FCC won’t enforce the tariff. “Why don’t they prevent companies from using fraudulent LOAs to NASC numbers when they are about to go spare? Or, why don’t they enforce porting rules?” we’d ask. Well, today Richard Hindman, the FCC Division Chief, Telecommunications, explained why. The responsibility to police the tariff lies with the entity that files the tariff; in this case SMS/800, Inc, the board that consists of the three Bell Operating Companies (BOCs). It appears that all these years the way to manage these issues was for the BOCs to take away the RespOrg’s access to SMS.

I know there are gray areas that are difficult to handle and maybe fear of lawsuits was why they didn’t enforce what they could have, but our $.0966 per number per month pays for their lawyer! Maybe some of you would have balked with paying $.0976 but think of the savings to be had if some ports didn’t take days of calling, faxing and re-faxing to finally succeed in getting the number to where the customer wanted it. For eighteen years I have been paying a staff member to come in every day to contact every RespOrg with a late port, followed by paying a management person to follow up when that doesn’t get results. All this time and money down the drain when there was a fix to this. That doesn’t even touch the amount of money that has been lost by the companies that should have had the revenue from these numbers that got stuck in porting!

Now I’m not proposing that every time a RespOrg releases a number a day late their SMS access should be removed forever, but for the ones, and we all know who you are, that never seem to get the fax or never respond to escalation requests, maybe discovering their SMS access has been denied would get their attention.

So what can the FCC enforce? …to be continued.

A new Transition Team is now in place to start the design process for expanding representation on the SMS Board.  For those of you coming into this issue just now, SMS/800, Inc. has been managed by a board comprised of the Bell Operating Companies since the beginning of toll-free portability.  This year the Bell Companies, other companies in the industry, and the FCC concluded that it was time to open board participation to other participants. 

To date, the effort has been managed by the current SMS/800, Inc.  Tuesday the new Transition Team held its first conference call.  Participants included representatives of twelve companies that comprise this new group:  800 Answer, 800 Response, Advanced Communications Integrated, Inc., ATL RespOrg Services, csf Corporation, Grande Communications Networks, Inc., Level 3 Communications, Excel Telecom, TeleSmart, Verizon Business, WorldLink Services, and Windstream.  The group is well supported by Michael Wade and Anil Patel from DSMI and Muareen Callan who is the present chair of SMS/800, Inc.  We are tasked, over the next five or six months, to develop a process to fill these new board seats.  We already have the survey that was done by an independent consultant hired by SMS/800, Inc. to serve as a guide so, as it appears now, much of what we will be doing is fine-tuning that process.

The team selected Dale Schneberger of Grande Communications, and me as co-chairs.  The Transition Team members will all meet in person for the first time August 2.  I am very optimistic about the positive impact this change can bring to our industry and would be glad to get input from all of you regarding what you feel might be needed.  The team clearly indicated a desire to be transparent and so I will keep you up to date as we go.

Earlier this month, SMS 2011, a consortium of toll-free RespOrgs, met with the Federal Communications Commission to discuss changing the sole control of the toll-free national database and the accompanying tariff from the Bell operating companies. This bottleneck, said SMS 2011, has kept toll-free from advancing with the telecom industry.

“This is very exciting for the industry,” said Aelea Christofferson, president of ATL RespOrg Services. “The FCC fully supports a more representative group to focus on the changing needs of toll-free. SMS 2011 wants to make the processes that control all toll-free calls more transparent, so companies that have never been landline-based can have more influence.”

 What’s more, many new entrants to the telecom business from the IP world don’t realize that all toll-free calls must be originated on one ofsix carriers, said Christofferson.

The process to form SMS 2011 and its missionstarted about nine years ago. Christofferson invited all 399 RespOrgs to a conference call to start the ball rolling. With almost 40 companies on the call, a group stepped up to meeting, developing, and drafting the FCC proposal. SMS 2011 includes members from Level 3, Windstream, Qwest, Telesmart, and ATL.

 “It took nine years, but finally a process originally launched by Sprint in 2002 has come to fruition,” said Christofferson.

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
for more information contact:
Aelea Christofferson
aelea@atlc.com
888-217-5784
www.ATLC.com
Comptel, booth 115, cell phone 541-771-8814

Toll Free Industry’s biggest change since portability in 1993

Sunriver, OR – March 21, 2011- On March 1, 2011 SMS 2011, a consortium of toll free RespOrgs, (if you need a definition of RespOrg I would be glad to help) met with the FCC to discuss changing the sole control of the toll free national database and the accompanying tariff out of the hands of the Bell Operating Companies.  This bottleneck has kept toll free from advancing with the telecom industry and kept all of us working with systems designed in the 1980’s.

“This is very exciting for the industry”, said Aelea Christofferson, President of ATL RespOrg services.”  “The FCC fully supports a more representative group to focus on the changing needs of toll free.  “SMS 2011” wants to make the processes that control all toll free calls more transparent, so companies that have never been land-line based can have more influence.  Still many new entrants to the telecom business from the IP world don’t realize that all toll free calls must be originated on one of six carriers.” Ms. Christofferson added.

The Process took nine years with many dedicated partners to accomplish. Ms. Christofferson invited all 399 RespOrgs to a conference call to start the ball rolling.  With almost 40 companies on the call a group stepped up to meeting, developing and drafting the FCC proposal.  “SMS 2011” included members from Level 3, Windstream, Qwest, Telesmart, and ATL.  “It took nine years, but finally a process originally launched by Sprint in 2002 has come to fruition.”

ATL RespOrg Services is the oldest and largest independent RespOrg serving carriers (IP included), resellers, consultants and large end users.  Prior to launching ATL in 1991 Aelea Christofferson had already been involved in toll free since the 1980’s when she was Pacific Bell’s representative to the team that designed toll free portability.
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Comptel is next week in Las Vegas.  We are making appointments with our President, Aelea Christofferson, who is looking forward to talking with people who are interested in the recent FCC meetings that will change the management of the toll free systems.  If you are a RespOrg, sell toll free, or a large end user of toll free, you need to talk with Aelea so you can be a part of the plans.  Call 800-398-5777 and ask for an appointment.

The first big step to changing the management of SMS and regulatory control of the RespOrg tariff happened in Washington, DC on Tuesday. For almost two hours six staff from the FCC’s Competition Policy Division, including Deputy Division Chief Ann Stevens, met with eight of us from the industry. The participants are listed on the attached proposal plus two of Level 3’s attorneys. Level 3’s support has been really wonderful and crucial in our discussion of the limitation of only six companies with nationwide CICs.

Most of the discussion centered on what the process should be to transition the current SMS/800, Inc. board of three members, one from each of the Bell Operating Companies (BOCs), to a more representative leadership. No one disagrees that this needs to be done, but the SMS/800, Inc. members would like that transition to be planned by the three of them while our group wants the transition planned by a broader group. We had found out earlier in the month that the BOCs were ready to take their own proposal to the FCC on March 8, but we didn’t find out until Tuesday’s meeting that they asked there not even be public comment on their proposal. The good news is since our meeting that won’t happen.

We haven’t received final word yet, but I think it is safe to say that there will be a broader group involved in the planning and the FCC staff feels that this warrants a short time frame (maybe six-months) to require the new board to be in place. We are hoping for the official order shortly.

FCC Proposal

Presented slide show

FCC Proposal

The attached draft proposal will be presented to the FCC on March 1, 2011. This is an important change for the industry because it would, for the first time, be allowing companies other than the Bell Operating Companies to be represented in the management and regulatory control of the toll free industry. A Google group has been set up to get your input, sms800newmanagement@googlegroups.com. Please join this group to see all documents and updates on this process, but more importantly to give your input on these important changes.

It will be important at the FCC meeting to provide industry input. SMS 2011 will also consider your input for inclusion in the proposal if it is received prior to February 23.

The new SMS rates will be reflected on ATL’s March 15, 2011 invoices. SMS pass-through is billed in arrears.

I should have been in Oregon Thursday night, but weather interfered and I only got as far as Denver.  I spent the night there and then after a long two weeks got home Friday.  If I missed you this trip, I’ll try next trip.  I have met with some really fascinating companies that are succeeding because they think outside of the box, or like me know the inside of the box really well.  It works either way.  I would like to thank those of you who met with me and tell you it means a lot to me when you rave about my reps. ATL has the good fortune to have some great people and it is all worth it when it gets confirmed by our customers again and again.