Andrew reported the working group is in a holding pattern on formal guidance for cloud-based call handling because Lumen must first develop a national standard for how cloud solutions will interact with an ESInet. He said, according to a Lumen contact, Colorado’s request is among the first from an ESInet customer and that Lumen estimates a first draft of a national ‘Lumen standard’ in Q1 or Q2 of next year.

Andrew and other participants clarified that Carbine and other CPE integrations can continue at the phone-system level (programming the CPE and routing calls into and out of the ESInet), but the broader routing best practice and an I3-compliant interaction between cloud call-handling platforms and Colorado’s ESInet require Lumen’s upstream standard work. Several attendees said the project-management fee and contracting process had been a pain point; Andrew said Jim Carlson proposed using existing ESInet tariff language to bill build hours rather than executing a separate MSA, and Jeff Winkelman said his offer-management team had forwarded language to legal for review.

The group agreed to take the cloud-standard item off the immediate agenda until Lumen shares its draft; Carbine integrations and CPE programming will proceed where feasible.