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Local number portability

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Local number portability, (LNP) for fixed lines, and full mobile number portability (FMNP), for mobile phone lines, refers to the ability to transfer either an existing fixed-line or mobile telephone number assigned by a local exchange carrier (LEC) and reassign it to another carrier. In most cases, there are limitations to transferability with regards to geography, service area coverage and technology.

In the United States and Canada, mobile number portability is referred to simply as WNP or WLNP (Wireless LNP). In Japan and Pakistan it is referred to as mobile number portability, (MNP).[1] Wireless Number Portability is available in some parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, and most European countries including Britain; however, this relates to transferability between mobile phone lines only. Iceland, Canada, and the United States are the only three countries in the world that offer full number portability transfers between both fixed lines and mobile phone lines.[2][3]

Most cellular telephone companies will charge for this conversion as a regulatory cost recovery fee.

History

Though it was introduced as a tool to promote competition in the heavily monopolized wireline telecommunications industry (see the First Report and Order on LNP and Number Pooling), number portability became popular with the advent of mobile telephones, since in most countries different mobile operators are provided with different area codes and, without portability, changing one's operator would require changing one's number. Some operators, especially incumbent operators with large existing subscriber bases, have argued against portability on the grounds that providing this service incurs considerable overhead, while others argue that it prevents vendor lock-in and allows them to compete fairly on price and service. Due to this conflict of interest, number portability is usually mandated for all operators by telecommunications regulatory authorities. In the US, LNP was mandated by the FCC in 1996 with the First Report and Order on LNP and Number Pooling. The mandate required all carriers in the top 100 MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas) to be "LNP-capable" and port numbers to any carriers sending a BFR (bona fide request). The ability to keep a number while switching providers is thought to be attractive to consumers. It was also a major point made by CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers) preventing customers from leaving ILECs (Incumbent Line Exchange Carriers), thus hindering competition. Details regarding the reasons for LNP and how it is to be implemented can be found in the First Report and Order referenced above.

In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mandated this in order to increase competition among providers. As of late November 2003, LNP was required for all landline and wireless common carriers, so long as the number is being ported to the same geographical area or telephone exchange. This latest mandate included carriers outside the top 100 MSAs that theretofore enjoyed a rural carrier exemption.

Portability by country

Australia

In Australia, mobile telephone numbers have been portable between carriers since 2001. Previously, prefixes 04x1, 04x2 and 04x3 referred to Optus customers, 04x4, 04x5 and 04x6 referred to Vodafone numbers, and 04x7, 04x8 and 04x9 referred to Telstra. Portability has been a great asset in allowing freedom of choice of service provider. However many telecommunications companies had special or discount rates for calls between two customers of the same service provider, which although the special rates still existed, it was made difficult for customers to determine which provider the person they were calling was with. Land line phone numbers are tied to a particular physical telephone exchange - as of 2004 there are no plans or demand to change this.

Canada

In Canada, wireline/competitive local exchange carriers must provide portability. As of March 14, 2007, wireless carriers must provide portability in most of Canada[4].

Europe

In the European Union, all telephone providers are required to provide number portability under the Universal Services Directive (2002/22/EU).

India

In India, the the four major metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai will have mobile number portability (MNP) by the end of 2008. A decision on extending number portability to other ‘A’ circle cities and towns will be taken in April, 2008. ‘A’ circles include Maharashtra (outside Mumbai), Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

However this has been stiffly opposed by many private cellular operators who claim that it will prevent growth.

Japan

In Japan, 番号ポータビリティー制度 (bangō portability seido - commonly referred to as portability or MNP) began on October 24, 2006. Users will be able to change cellular phone carriers without changing their number for a fee of 5000 yen. However, e-mail addresses are subject to change, and music/data downloaded may not be used.

Korea

In Korea, mobile number portability service started from January 1, 2004. One thing different from other countries is that it started from SK Telecom, the dominant operator which has over 50% of market share. To prevent users' churning to the dominant operator, the government gave six months' and one year's delay to the second and the third operator, respectively. As a result, only SK Telecom's subscribers could move to other operators during the first six months.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, MNP (Mobile Number Portability) plan to start by 2008, according to Jerry Ong's Malaysia Mobile Number Portability Watch.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, LMNP (Local and Mobile Number Portability) began on 1 April 2007.

Oman

In Oman, Mobile Number Portability was mandated on the Public Mobile Operators, Nawras and Oman Mobile, via the licenses issued to them by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). MNP was launched on 26 August 2006; a first in the MENA region. Users are able to change cellular phone carriers without changing their number for a nominal fee of 3 OMR. [5]

Pakistan

In Pakistan, پاکستان the PTA mandated mobile number portability (MNP) on March 23, 2007. Users are able to change their cellular phone service for a fee of 500 rupees. [6]

Singapore

The world's first country to introduce number portability for mobile telephones was Singapore in 1997. This is currently implemented through voice call & SMS forwarding. True number portability is expected to be realized in 4th quarter of 2007, with the implementation of a Centralised Number Portability Database Solution, as proposed by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore. [3] [4]

Spain

In Spain, number portability among cell phone carriers is available since October 1st 2000, without any cost to the end user. The technical details for the process are regulated by the CMT (Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones or Telecoms Market Commission) and all carriers are obliged to comply with their requirements. As of August 2007, cell number portability must complete in 5 business days (i.e. excluding weekends) from the moment the request is confirmed by the customer, with the actual switch occurring late at night to avoid missing any calls. The user wakes up using a new SIM-card from the new cell provider while keeping the number.

In the mature Spanish cell phone market (as of June 2007, with 107 lines per 100 inhabitants [7]), portability has been widely used by the competing carriers as a way to steal each other's customers, usually offering them free handsets or extra credit. From June 2006 to June '07 alone 3,957,556 cell phone lines switched carriers via this proceeding, about 10% of all cellular lines in use[8]. Spain is the one country in the European Union where more customers have switched cell phone providers, with more than 9 million carrier switches completed as of April 2007 [9].

As for the fixed line market, number portability is also available since year 2000, but weaker competition meant that actual adoption of the fixed number portability process was quite sluggish. As of August 2004, 1,041,246 fixed line switches were completed [10].

Fixed line market is peculiar in Spain, since only two local loop providers can operate at each particular region (or demarcación as regulated by the CMT): a cable carrier (such as Ono, R and many others) and the former State monopoly (Telefónica). The sole of them operating statewide --Telefónica-- is obliged to provide other firms with access to their exchange facilities or rental/transfer of their copper last-mile loops, at fees regulated by the CMT (practice known as local loop unbundling). As cable providers do not have a statewide footprint, many users have no actual chance of applying for "true" fixed number portability, that is, giving up Telefónica's service altogether. Some of them can however get their service from a third company who will bill the service and then pay Telefónica for the copper pair rental and maintenance fees, with the customer receiving a single bill. In the end, as Telefónica set up a reselling program for their fixed lines and DSL internet access, the former monopoly is still much in control of the fixed line market, including profitable broadband access. In fact, Telefónica was fined in excess of €152 million by the European Commission in July 4 2007 on ground of "impeding competition on the Spanish broadband internet access market for more than five years, and so depriving consumers and business of a choice of broadband suppliers"[11].

Due to the billing scheme used in the Spanish phone call market, where the calling party assumes the full cost of the call, and calling a cell phone is usually more expensive than calling a fixed line, a distinction must be made between cell numbers (beginning with 6) and fixed numbers (usually beginning with 9 or 8). Full number portability in which a customer transfers a cell to a fixed number or vice versa is thus not possible. See Telephone numbering in Spain for more information.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan Government has made a policy decision in August 2007 to introduce number portability for cellular phones in Sri Lanka. This is supported by Sri Lanka Telecom owned Mobitel Lanka and other cellular operators.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Ofcom directs fixed-line telephone network providers, mobile phone providers and broadband service providers to provide number portability under the Porting Authorisation Code rules and Migration Authorisation Code code of practice respectively. As the UK is an EU member country, the Ofcom direction is intended to reflect the requirements of EU Directive 2002/22/EU.

United States

In the United States, the FCC first mandated LNP among wireline carriers in 1997, as well. LNP was first implemented in the U.S. upon the establishment of the original Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) in Chicago, Illinois in 1998. This service covered select rate centers in the Ameritech region. Thereafter, as switches and telephone networks were upgraded with Location Routing Number (LRN) capability, LNP was deployed sequentially to the remaining RBOC areas. The U.S. FCC since has mandated Wireless Local Number Portability starting November 24, 2003 (in metropolitan areas), and allowed operators to charge an additional monthly Long-Term Telephone Number Portability End-Use Charge as compensation. On November 10, 2003, the FCC additionally ruled that number portability applies to landline numbers moving to mobile telephones as well.

Technical issues

Complexity for number portability can come from many sources. Historically, numbers were assigned to various operators in blocks. The operators, who were often also service providers, then provided these numbers to the subscribers of telephone services. Numbers were also recycled in blocks. With number portability, it is envisioned that the size of these blocks may grow smaller or even to single numbers. Once this occurs the granularity of such operations will represent a greater workload for the telecommunications provider. With phone numbers assigned to various operators in blocks, the system worked quite well in a fixed line environment since everyone was attached to the same infrastructure. The situation becomes somewhat more complex in a wireless environment such as that created by cellular communications.

In number portability the “donor network” provides the number and the “recipient network” accepts the number. The operation of donating a number requires that a number is “snapped out” from a network and “snapped into” the receiving network. If the subscriber ceases to need the number then it is normal that the original donor receives the number back and “snaps back” the number to its network. The situation is slightly more complex if the user leaves the first operator for a second and then subsequently elects to use a third operator. In this case the second operator will return the number to the first and then it is assigned to the third.

In cellular communications the concept of a location registry exists to tie a “mobile station” (such as a cellular phone) to the number. If a number is dialed it is necessary to be able to determine where in the network the mobile station exists. Some mechanism for such forwarding must exist. (For an example of such a system, see the article on the GSM network.)

In the US, there are standards for portability defined by the FCC and the LNPA, as well as NANPA and the ATIS which are agreed upon by all member providers to help make LNP as cost-efficient and expedient as possible while still retaining a healthy level security for all providers and in respect of the highest level of customer service. These rules, first defined in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Reports and Orders by the FCC (publicly available at fcc.gov), are further detailed by the LNPA in order to ensure any provider can successfully port numbers to any other provider. NeuStar provides a national database called the NPAC (National Portability Administration Center) which contains the correct routing information for all ported and pooled numbers in the US and Canada. The NANC maintains detailed documentation of the procedure common among US carriers to port numbers as described here.

Providers use SS7 to route calls throughout the US/Canada network. SS7 accesses databases for various services such as CNAM, LIDB, CLASS and, of course, LNP. Calls to ported numbers are completed when a customer who calls a ported number sends the dialed number to a provider's SSP (Service Switch Point), where it is identified either as a local call or not. If the call is local, the switch has the NPA-NXX in its routing table as portable, so it sends a routing request to the STP (Signal Transfer Point) which accesses a local database that is updated by an LSMS (Local Service Management System) which holds all routing for all ported numbers to which the carrier is responsible for completing calls. If routing information is found, a response is sent to the "query" containing the information necessary to properly route the call. If it is not a local number, the call is passed on to the STP and routed until it gets to a local carrier who will perform the "query" mentioned earlier and route the call accordingly.

The routing information necessary to complete these calls is known as an LRN (Location Routing Number). The LRN is no more than a simple 10-digit telephone number that resides in the switch of the service provider currently providing service for the ported telephone number.

When a provider receives a request to port a telephone number from a new customer, that provider sends an industry-standard LSR (Local Service Request) to the existing (or "old") provider. When the Old Provider receives this request, it sends back FOC (Firm Order Confirmation) and the 5-day max process of porting the number begins. Either provider can initiate the port using a SOA or LSOA (Service Order Activator) which directly edits the NPAC database mentioned before. If the new provider initiates the port, it is called a "pull," and if the old provider initiates, it is a "push." Once the number is pulled or pushed, the new provider must "activate" the number using the LRN of the switch serving the customer. At the point this is completed, the number is ported.

Much of this process is duplicated in intermodal portability (porting between wireline and wireless providers). There are a few technical differences, however, in WLNP-- Especially with concern to the time intervals allowed.

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ 'Wireless number portability' arrives in Canada
  3. ^ Cellphone users set free as wireless number portability comes to Canada
  4. ^ http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/t1021.htm
  5. ^ [2]
  6. ^ http://www.pta.gov.pk/media/Code_of_practic_22-03-2007.pdf
  7. ^ CMT June 2007 monthly report (in Spanish)
  8. ^ CMT June 2007 monthly report (in Spanish)
  9. ^ AECOMO Spanish Mobile Communications Association news report (in Spanish)
  10. ^ Consumer magazine (in Spanish)
  11. ^ Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition Policy; Press conference on Telefónica decision, Brussels, July 4 2007

See also

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