Washington, D.C-based NeuStar (www.neustar.com) has developed a national clearinghouse for managing Customer Account Record Exchange (CARE) transactions to benefit telecommunications customers, CLECs and IXCs.
The clearinghouse will be located either in NeuStar's data center in Chicago or its new facility in Sterling, Va. Maria Marzullo, NeuStar's director of new business development, says she's unaware of any such clearinghouse that is as comprehensive and national in scope and that is provided by a neutral third party. "Obviously we see a need in the industry for such a service," Marzullo says.
David Hawley, an analyst with the Yankee Group (www.yankeegroup.com), says the key to the clearinghouse's success will be market acceptance. Hawley says eBonding has solved a number of problems associated with CARE transactions and, if the clearinghouse is simply a way of competing against gateway vendors, NeuStar may have trouble getting carrier acceptance.
While the clearinghouse won't become operational until the second quarter of 2001, "we are working with carriers today to determine their interface requirements, to determine their specific needs, and ensure that we support all their needs," Marzullo says.
AT&T Corp. (www.att.com) plans to subscribe to the clearinghouse, according to Marzullo. "They realize the problems they're having with exchanging CARE records with CLECs and to support the growth in the competitive market they've decided that a solution such as NeuStar's clearinghouse will meet their needs," she says.
The NeuStar Clearinghouse streamlines CARE transactions to make them more effective, efficient and economical when customers choose to switch carriers.
CLECs, IXCs and other carriers will be able to subscribe to the service using various pricing models, Marzullo says. CLECs, for example, would pay a monthly subscription fee and IXCs would be charged on a per-transaction basis with volume-based tiers.
Marzullo says the clearinghouse also provides value-added functionality. Carriers will be able to interface with the clearinghouse through an automated direct connection if their OSS provides that capability.
NeuStar is the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), acting as the sole administrator of area codes and central office codes (or exchanges) in the U.S., Canada, Bermuda and many Caribbean Islands.
