iconectiv is a supplier of network planning and network management services to telecommunications providers. Known as Bellcore after its establishment in the United States in 1983 as part of the break-up of the

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundr ...

, the company's name changed to Telcordia Technologies after a change of ownership in 1996. The business was acquired by

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...

in 2012, then restructured and rebranded as iconectiv in 2013. A major architect of the United States telecommunications system, the company pioneered many services, including caller ID,

call waiting Call waiting is a telephone service where a subscriber can accept a second incoming telephone call by placing an in-progress call on hold—and may also switch between calls. With some providers it can be combined with additional features such as ...

mobile number portability Mobile number portability (MNP) enables mobile telephone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that ...

and

toll-free telephone number A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefi ...

(800) service. It also pioneered the prepaid charging system and the

Intelligent Network The Intelligent Network (IN) is the standard network architecture specified in the ITU-T Q.1200 series recommendations. It is intended for fixed as well as Global System for Mobile Communications, mobile telecommunication, telecom networks. It al ...

. Headquartered in

Bridgewater, New Jersey Bridgewater Township is a township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is both a regional commercial hub for Central New Jersey (home to Bridgewater Commons and different corporate headquarters) and is a bedroom suburb ...

(U.S.), iconectiv provides network and operations management, numbering, registry and fraud prevention services for the global telecommunications industry. It provides numbering services in more than a dozen countries, including serving as the Local Number Portability Administrator (LNPA) for the United States. In that capacity, iconectiv manages the

Number Portability Administration Center The Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) is a function of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States. It administers the routing of telephone calls and text messages (SMS) for the telecommunications industry and its ...

(NPAC), the system that supports the implementation of local number portability.

Founding

iconectiv was established on October 20, 1983, as Central Services Organization as part of the 1982

Modification of Final Judgment In United States telecommunication law, the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ) is the August 1982 consent decree concerning the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) and its subsidiaries. The terms required the Bell System divestiture &n ...

that broke up the

. It later received the name Bell Communications Research. Nicknamed Bellcore, it was a consortium established by the Regional Holding Companies upon their separation from AT&T. Since AT&T retained

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

, the operating companies desired a separate research and development facility. Bellcore, the tenth company to register an Internet domain name in comTLD, provided joint research and development, was involved in standards setting, training, and centralized government point-of-contact functions for its co-owners, the seven Regional Holding Companies that were themselves divested from AT&T as holding companies for the 22 local Bell Operating Companies. Bellcore's initial staff and corporate culture were drawn from the nearby Bell Laboratories locations in northern New Jersey, plus additional staff from AT&T and regional operating companies. The company originally had its headquarters in

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

with dedication by

New Jersey Governor The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official res ...

Thomas Kean Thomas Howard Kean ( ; born April 21, 1935) is an American businessman, academic administrator and politician. A member of the Republican Party, Kean served as the 48th governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990. Following his tenure as governor, ...

in 1985, but moved its headquarters to Morristown a decade later. Bellcore also operated the former Bell System Center for Technical Education in

Lisle, Illinois Lisle ( ) is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 22,390 at the 2010 census, and in 2019 the population was recorded to be 23,270. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Illinois Technology and Resea ...

Separation from the Baby Bells

In 1996, the company was provisionally acquired by

Science Applications International Corporation Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Inc. is an American technology company headquartered in Reston, Virginia that provides government services and information technology support. History The original SAIC was created in 196 ...

(SAIC). The sale was closed one year later, following a regulatory approval process that covered all the states individually. Since the divested company no longer had any ownership connection with the Bell regional companies, the name was changed to Telcordia Technologies. in 1999. The headquarters was moved to

Piscataway Piscataway may refer to: *Piscataway people, a Native American ethnic group native to the southern Mid-Atlantic States *Piscataway language *Piscataway, Maryland, an unincorporated community *Piscataway, New Jersey, a township *Piscataway Creek, Ma ...

, New Jersey. The former headquarters campus in Morristown and its offices and laboratories in Red Bank, New Jersey, are former Bell Labs locations that were transferred to Telcordia. Equal stakes in the company were sold in March 2005 to

Providence Equity Partners Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. is a specialist private equity firm, private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, education, technology investments across North America and Europe. The firm specializes in growth-oriented pri ...

and

Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has over ...

Acquisition by Ericsson

On June 14, 2011,

announced an agreement to acquire Telcordia for $1.15 billion. On January 12, 2012, Telcordia became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson. On June 15, 2011, Ericsson announced the completion of the purchase from

private-equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a typ ...

firms

and

, with the goal to pursue industry trends that include

mobile broadband Mobile broadband is the marketing term for Wireless broadband, wireless Internet access via mobile networks. Access to the network can be made through a portable modem, wireless modem, or a Tablet computer, tablet/smartphone (possibly Tetherin ...

managed services Managed services is the practice of outsourcing the responsibility for maintaining, and anticipating need for, a range of processes and functions, ostensibly for the purpose of improved operations and reduced budgetary expenditures through the r ...

outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

and global OSS/ BSS transformation. The acquisition, which officially closed on January 12, 2012, added about 2,600 employees to Ericsson's staff. On June 4, 2012, Telcordia and its products were officially

rebranded Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

as Ericsson. In the process of integration, Telcordia's Advanced Technology Solutions business unit, the company's research arm, was rebranded as

Applied Communication Sciences Peraton Labs, previously branded as "Applied Communication Sciences," is a communications and information research and engineering company based in the United States. Previously the R&D arm of Telcordia Technologies, the company became a busine ...

, and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson that operated independently on day-to-day operations pursuant to a proxy structure mandated by the U.S. government. In October 2012, Applied Communication Sciences relocated its headquarters to

Basking Ridge Basking Ridge is an Local government in New Jersey#Unincorporated communities, unincorporated community located within Bernards Township, New Jersey, Bernards Township in the Somerset Hills region of Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset Count ...

, New Jersey, occupying the former headquarters of AT&T Wireless. In February 2013, Ericsson launched ''iconectiv'' for its interconnection business. During this time, Ericsson maintained its corporate presence in

Plano, Texas Plano ( ) is a city in Collin County, Texas, Collin County and Denton County, Texas, United States. It had a population of 285,494 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Hist ...

and iconectiv's corporate presence in New Jersey. In July 2017, iconectiv moved its headquarters from

to Bridgewater,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Francisco Partners investment

On August 10, 2017,

Francisco Partners Francisco Partners is an American private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in technology and technology-enabled services businesses. Founded in August 1999 and based in San Francisco with offices in London and New York City, Francis ...

announced a $200 million investment in iconectiv and received a 16.7 percent ownership stake in the company.

Notable clients

In 2015, iconectiv won a contract procured by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) to operate the

(NPAC). The service had been operated by Neustar Inc. for 18 years. iconectiv completed the transition from Neustar on May 29, 2018 becoming the Local Number Portability Administrator (LNPA) for the United States. iconectiv was awarded the contract from CTIA to provide

Common Short Code codes, or short numbers, are short digit sequences, significantly shorter than telephone numbers, that are used to address messages in the Multimedia Messaging System (MMS) and short message service (SMS) systems of mobile network operators. I ...

(CSC) Registry Services, effective January 1, 2016. In 2019, the Secure Telephone Identity Governance Authority (STI-GA) selected iconnectiv as the U.S. STI Policy Administrator for supervising measures to ensure voice calls have accurate

caller ID Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call is ...

References

External links

*
Telcordia Generic Requirements

Telcordia is now part of Ericsson
{{Authority control Bell System Research and development organizations Companies based in Middlesex County, New Jersey Telecommunications companies established in 1983 Piscataway, New Jersey American subsidiaries of foreign companies 2012 mergers and acquisitions Ericsson