The Information and Telecommunications Technology Authority for the Cayman Islands is standing firm on the 31 January deadline for the implementation of local number portability.
The latest challenge to the implementation came after a dispute arose between Digicel Cayman Islands and LIME Cayman Islands as to the technology to be used when dealing with SMS connectivity once number portability has been implemented.
The dispute arose in October, with the two parties favouring different protocols as Digicel was in favour of using SS7 while LIME was in favour of using SMPP. Although the authority, which is responsible for the regulation and licensing of telecommunications in Cayman, favours negotiated solutions between the parties to the local number portability agreement, the authority is authorised to make binding decisions should it be necessary.
Number portability allows telephone users to retain their mobile or land-line telephone numbers when changing network operators.
In the report on the matter released on 23 December, the authority states “[it] considers that the Consortium members should take responsibility for choosing the most appropriate LNP solution for the Cayman Islands. Which SMS protocol should be used by the Parties in order to allow for the exchange of SMS messages in an LNP environment would normally be a network issue for those operators to agree upon.”
However, the report also noted “the Authority considers that the Dispute will likely delay, perhaps significantly, the 31 January, 2012, LNP implementation date agreed to by all Consortium members on 30 August, 2011.”
The impact on the go live deadline for number portability was borne out by Digicel’s submission, which stated that given the dispute it would be extremely challenging, if not entirely impractical, to meet the deadline of 31 January and therefore requested at least mobile number portability be pushed back.
As the authority said “failing to meet this implementation date will deny customers the benefits of LNP, and this is not in the public interest” it was decided to make a determination on the dispute rather than allow the parties involved time to come to a resolution on their own.
Under the authority’s dispute resolution regulations, “the authority shall act expeditiously, and in doing so may have regard to the subject matter of the dispute; the need to inquire into and investigate the dispute; the objectives and functions of the authority; and all matter affecting the merits, and fair settlement of the dispute.”
After allowing both parties to submit their arguments in favour of their preferred solution for the implementation of SMS connectivity and allowing time for a response to the other party’s submission, the authority determined in favour of LIME, while at the same time rejecting Digicel’s request for an extension to the go live date for local number portability.
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