Over the last year or so, the issue of local number portability (LNP), in general, and the requirement that JSI clients and other "small" (i.e., less than 2 percent of subscribers in the aggregate nationwide) carriers prepare for "one-business-day" porting generated growing interest and concern.  While the FCC almost seemed to acknowledge that the outcome ("benefit") would not justify the expense for the affected small carriers, the new porting "era" began as scheduled, on February 11, 2011. 

For Senior Consultant Bridget Alexander, the ongoing challenge has been to help JSI clients make the difficult shift and to ensure that the new rules and their various testing regimens reflect rural ILECs' interests and support client-friendly LNP procedures.  When the LNPA Working Group (LNPA-WG) created the Inter-Carrier Testing (ICT) Subcommittee late last year, the attending service providers agreed that inter-carrier testing would be instrumental in the successful implementation of one-business-day simple porting.

A representative of AT&T Mobility, Teresa Patton, was selected to serve as co-chair of the subcommittee and signaled her preference for a wireline co-chair.  JSI's Bridget Alexander volunteered to represent the wireline community, and was named ICT co-chair.  Bridget also serves as co-chair of the ICT Wireline Test Plan Creation Subcommittee.  The plans Bridget worked to create as part of her ICT service helped the industry test the ordering process to make one-business-day simple ports as easy and simple as possible.