The FCC has relied on the carriers to develop their own open network architectures and the FCC relies on the carriers to ensure that the services provided are secure. A review of the implementation of each ONA plan is needed to determine the level of security provided by each ONA implementation. The FCC's requirements for security capabilities have resulted primarily from the requirement that ONA services be provided in a nondiscriminatory manner. The primary purpose of ONA security capabilities required by the FCC was not to provide security in the traditional sense, but to prevent a marketing advantage.
Current ONA security related capabilities which provide some degree of confidentiality and integrity of information fall into two areas: protection of Customer Proprietary Network Information and provision of Operations Support Systems services.