Like a tsunami we don’t see until it’s too late, number portability is heading toward the wireless industry, and few companies seem prepared for the impending storm.
While phones, technology and communication vehicles have changed dramatically through the years, one constant in the telecommunications industry has been that each telecom company “owned” one commodity: telephone numbers. And each customer had one number associated to that telecommunications company. All the supporting engineering, billing and customer-service systems were built on these basic fundamental truths.
With the forced implementation of number portability, these constants are about to change, and carriers-including wireless companies-and their vendors must be ready to support this change.
Background
Number portability, mandated by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, was intended to make the telecommunications marketplace more competitive. In several high-profile surveys, subscribers overwhelmingly (91 percent) said the greatest barrier for them to switch providers was not being able to keep their current numbers. Eighty-six percent said they would consider changing carriers if they could keep their existing numbers.
The ability to change from wireline to wireless, or from one wired or wireless provider to another, without switching telephone numbers, would create a much more competitive environment.
Turning consumer desire for number portability into reality will happen in three phases. The first and second phases, local number portability (LNP) and service portability (SP), will be happen simultaneously. While LNP and SP are two separate initiatives, when LNP is discussed, SP is implicit.
Number portability gives subscribers the ability to move within a specified geographic service area and keep their existing telephone numbers. While the areas vary widely, they are loosely based on the central-office area (in wireline terms) or rate center (in wireless terms). Typically, the service area is about eight miles.
Under LNP, if a subscriber moves from one neighborhood to another within the same central-office area, he or she will be able to keep the same phone number. SP will allow this same subscriber also to switch to a new carrier, while in the same area, and keep his or her current number.
The third phase is geographic portability, where a subscriber could keep his or her number without regard to location. So a person in Los Angeles could move to New York City and keep the same number. There is no definite date for geographic portability implementation.
Wireline carriers will be the first to provide LNP, and wireless carriers will follow one year later. Trials in Illinois and other states prove LNP can work in the wired world, and, recently, work by Evolving Systems and Lockheed Martin have proven its viability in a wireless environment.
While wireline carriers are moving to accommodate the new mandates, wireless carriers are moving much more slowly, hoping that lobbying efforts in Washington will give them more time to meet the mandate.
If lobbying efforts are unsuccessful, wireless providers will have to prove they can route a ported number by December 1998. By June 1999, number portability will be a requirement throughout the United States. Most local exchange carriers and competitive LECs already have developed plans on how they will support number portability. In contrast, many wireless carriers still haven’t begun the work of identifying how they will be affected by number portability. Below are some issues wireless carriers should consider.
The technical side
To accommodate number portability across the country, the Federal Communications Commission funded the creation of Number Portability Administration Centers (NPACs), which have been developed by Lockheed Martin and Perot Systems. There are seven NPACs in the United States, and each NPAC supports an area that geographically aligns with one of the seven original regional Bell operating companies.
Each NPAC will be responsible for keeping track of which companies currently “own” each subscriber once the subscriber has ported, or changed, from one carrier to another. In technical terms, porting refers to one telecommunications carrier porting a subscriber’s Mobile Directory Number to another carrier. Since subscribers keep their MDNs wherever they move, carrier networks will use a 10-digit companion number, called a Mobile Service Identification, as the subscriber’s identification number.
In the current wireless environment, the subscriber is registered on the network by the Mobile Identification Number, and the Electronic Serial Number ties the MIN to a physical piece of equipment-i.e., the phone.
In the LNP network environment, the subscriber’s MIN-that is, the number the subscriber calls “mine”-will be the MDN. Since subscribers can take the number with them wherever they may go, the serving carrier will use the MSID as the subscriber’s identity number. So there will be two numbers to identify the subscriber: The MDN, or the regular telephone number used to call a subscriber; and the MSID, the number the carrier’s network will use to identify the subscriber. The ESN will remain the same, still having the function of relating the phone with the subscriber.
One big difference is that the number inside the phone today is the subscriber’s MIN, and the number inside the phone in an LNP environment will be the MSID. In effect, the network elements don’t care what number was dialed to reach the subscriber (the MDN), only the number to which the MDN translates (the MSID).
When a subscriber ports to a new carrier, the carrier will assign an MSID to the subscriber in the same manner MINs are assigned today.
The MSID is the number phones will register on the networks when activated and/or powered on. Each network will use the first six digits of the MSID to compare against a translation table to determine a subscriber’s carrier. Currently, wireless industry players are concerned they may need to use all 10 digits of the MSID in the translation process, and working committees at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and Personal Communications Industry Association are addressing these issues.
The concern revolves around currently defined standards that are wireline-centric; the fixed nature of the wireline industry requires using only the first 6 digits. The mobile nature of wireless may require a change in the current standard. Where one wireline carrier might use 10 switches to cover a given geographic area, a wireless service provider might use one switch for the same geographic area.
So even though both wireline and wireless industries agree the MSID will be 10 digits, wireless carriers will need routing based on all 10 digits, instead of just the first 6 digits.
Carriers will need to modify their systems to support storing the MDN in their billing and customer-service systems because the MSID will be transparent to the subscriber. Subscribers will give out their MDNs. When someone calls a subscriber (dialing the MDN), the switching network will inquire at the NPAC to determine to whom this subscriber belongs and will route the call accordingly. This transaction is called a query.
What these changes mean
Making these changes is expensive. Each carrier will have to interface to the NPACs either within its own network or by paying another carrier to do its queries.
Basically, two new network elements are needed to support LNP. The first, the Service Management System, is responsible for interfacing with the NPACs to perform the queries and retain the latest updates to the translation tables. The second element, the Service Order Activation function, is the process by which carrier will send updated porting information to the local NPAC.
Switching equipment providers
, such as Lucent Technologies Inc. and Northern Telecom Inc., actively are working on complementary elements f
or their switching equipment. Carriers also can choose one of the LNP solution providers such as Evolving Systems, Illuminet, or Lockheed Martin. The SMS typically is integrated within a carrier’s Signaling System 7 network.
On the business side, it’s a little more complicated. Most billing systems are based on two fundamental rules: First, each customer has one number; and second, the carrier “owns” the telephone numbers and has rules specifically for assigning numbers by channels, product type, etc. In the new environment, customers may or may not bring their own numbers with them.
This dynamic environment, where there are two numbers associated with each subscriber-both an MDN and an MSID-and where a carrier may issue one or both of those numbers, will require a wave of system enhancements and training for all customer-related business units, including customer service, credit, activations and distribution, including dealer channels.
Following are some of the business-environment changes that will be necessary for the typical wireless carrier:
Sales: Many companies use a point-of-sale system to check credit. This information then flows through to a cash-drawer function that potentially is tied to an inventory system, the customer-service system, and, if separate, the billing system. The POS system will need to support the MSID addition. Carriers will have both the MIN database used in the current environment, as well as a new MSID database. When subscribers port and use their MDNs, both the MDN and the MSID must be sent to the support systems.
If the subscriber is new, he or she will get both a new MIN, which is the MDN; and an MSID, which identifies that person in the serving carrier’s network.
The primary impact for POS and inventory systems is adding a new MSID field. Most billing systems handle the Telephone Number Inventory functions. The billing system also will need to be modified to support TNI having both an MDN and MSID; currently the TNI function only supports the MIN inventory. In a few carrier environments, the front-end system that supports POS also handles TNI. In these cases, refer to the changes identified below in the billing system section.
Customer care: Subscribers may or may not use a ported number. If they are ported, they most likely will not know their MSID. This means subscribers will give a customer-care agent their MDNs, and thus customer-service representatives will need to be able to look up the subscriber’s service by MDN. Because all the switch and network-element provisioning will be based on MSID, the system also will need to retain and store the MSID. Further, customer-service agents will use the MSID to troubleshoot problems.
To accommodate this environment, the customer-service systems will need a new field for the MDN and MSID, a tie between the MSID and MDN, and a modified look-up function that includes both of these new numbers.
Billing system: Many carriers use their billing systems as a customer-service system; for these modifications, see the Customer Care section above.
Most billing systems today, however, use some form of TNI, where carriers can reserve a set of numbers by agent, market, distribution channel, etc. The concept of TNI relies on the fact that each subscriber will have one number. But in the LNP environment each subscriber has two numbers: the MIN or MDN; and the MSID.
While these numbers can be the same, they don’t need to be; if the subscriber has ported, they won’t be. TNI will need to accommodate the two separate inventories of numbers, one for MINs and one for MSIDs; and the rules associated with reuse and assignability.
By the end of 1998, most switch vendors will introduce the changes necessary to accommodate LNP within the network, including the addition of the MSID onto the Call Detail Record.
Billing vendors also will need to make the changes to their systems to use the MSID instead of the MDN for rating. There still are some unsettled issues about whether the CDR will contain both the MDN and the MSID. Currently, the MDN will not be included on the CDR. Because the customer will need to see his or her MDN, not the MSID, on the invoice, billing vendors must translate the MSID to the MDN so the proper information can be provided on the invoice and to customer-service agents viewing the information online.
Most of the standard billing issues have been resolved regarding typical mobile-to-mobile, mobile-to-land and land-to-mobile calls. However, there are some issues working committees are addressing about private virtual network, calling party pays and wide-area calling.
Provisioning system or switch interface: Instead of a system populating the MIN into network elements when provisioning, the provisioning system will need to provision the MSID. Since the network will only use the MSID and not the MDN to route traffic, and may not necessarily need the MDN, carriers need to determine if they will want to send both the MDN and MSID to some of their support systems from their provisioning system.
Further, there may be an opportunity for carriers with a sufficiently sophisticated provisioning system to use the provisioning system to provide the SOA function. This would save the expense of having to purchase a separate, SOA-only provisioning facility.
Fraud systems: Once all the other business-support systems have been modified and the subscriber is using the carrier’s service, the fraud systems need to be able to support the new LNP environment. If the fraud system uses an NPA/NXX-ESN combination to identify traffic and fraud issues, the system will need to be modified to capture the MSID instead. Also, the fraud system may need to add a translation function to identify the MDN corresponding to the MSID.
Prepaid and debit-card calling: These services can be accommodated by changes in operations guidelines. There are not necessarily system changes required to support these services.
Settlement: Wireless carriers have settlement processes today to support interexchange carrier traffic and roaming. In the LNP environment, they will need to have LNP settlement between other carriers.
Every time a query is done on behalf of a subscriber in another carrier’s area, the carrier performing the query may charge the home carrier for the query. The charges will be at least as significant an administrative operation as roaming is today. The exception is that there is no national clearinghouse yet to support this settlement process.
A wake-up call
In technology conferences across the country, carriers have had their engineering representatives diligently learning everything they need to know to support number portability. They have detailed flows of how they will integrate the SMS and SOA functions into the network, as well as how they will interface to and with the NPAC or NPACs.
But the people who will be as greatly affected-customer service, billing and business-system operators-have yet to enter the discussion. In addition, while the carriers have little representation, not even a handful of billing vendors have been represented at all during these events.
In the past, any time a new change was introduced, carriers would rely on their billing vendors to “just tell us what needs to happen.” The changes associated with LNP affect every business system, including the billing and customer-care systems, as well as POS, inventory, fraud and a myriad of other systems. Carriers could find themselves in a situation where the engineering necessary to meet number portability requirements are in place and ready but the business can not support it.
Hopefully many carriers, large and small, will hear this warning call. Number portability is coming, and the law requires carriers to support it. Given the typical time frames and costs from billing and customer-care system vendors, carriers should be organizing now to understand
number portability, its impact to the business and the attack plan to make the necessary changes in
the systems, training and processes being used today.
The alternative is a year-2000 scenario, with too many carriers waiting too long to act and then finding themselves paying exorbitant rates in the race to beat the clock.
CTIA and PCIA are sponsoring “Subject Matter Expert Workshops” around the country. Carriers and vendors alike should make it a top priority to ensure they understand LNP and its impact to their organizations and take action now to ensure they are ready to support it.
Ray Morris is a communications consultant with Telegen Group Inc., based in Englewood, Colo., and specializes in the wireless industry. He can be reached at RMORRIS676@AOL.COM or at (303) 766-5351.
