LNP Overview

Local Number Portability

Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to establish a national framework that promotes competition and reduces regulation in all telecommunications markets. Congress realized that bringing competition to the local telephone marketplace was the best way to reduce prices, motivate telephone companies to provide high quality service and to deploy advanced services, and provide more overall choices for customers.

To increase competition in the local telephone market service, Congress recognized that certain barriers to competition must be eliminated. One of the major barriers to competition was the inability of customers to switch from one telephone company to another and retain the same telephone number. Congress realized that customers would be reluctant to switch to new telephone service providers if they were unable to keep their existing telephone numbers. Congress directed local telephone companies to offer "telephone number portability" in accordance with requirements prescribed by the FCC.

In the Telephone Number Portability First Report and Order, CC Docket 95-116 released July 2, 1996 and subsequent releases, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established rules mandating number portability for both Local Exchange Carriers ("LEC") and Commercial Mobile Radiotelephone Service ("CMRS") providers. After two extensions, a separate timetable was established for CMRS providers, requiring them to implement service provider number portability by November 24, 2002, including support of nationwide roaming within the top 100 MSA's. The section below lists the milestones that must be adhered to meet the targeted soft industry launch in September 2002.

Wireless Industry Milestones:

	By January 31, 2001, all MIN based Service Providers should complete the MIN/MDN separation in order to meet the testing start dates.
	By February 16, 2001, all porting wireless Service Providers choosing to implement LNP with a Service Order Administration System should notify the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) of their intent to test.
	By September 30, 2001, all porting service providers should complete NPAC testing as a prerequisite to inter-carrier testing.
	By May 31, 2002, all service providers should complete inter-carrier testing to make possible completion of LNP deployment by August 31, 2002.
	By September 1, 2002, all service providers should be ready to launch commercially in order to ensure network and service reliability prior to the holiday season.

Also below is a list of business arrangements that must be satisfied to ensure network compatibility prior to interoperability testing scheduled with wireline and wireless service providers as well as wireless resellers.

Business Arrangements:

Porting between wireline and wireless service providers require unique service level agreements. Service level agreements must be completed prior to inter-carrier testing.

Wireless Service Provider's who roam with non-porting partners are required to update business arrangements to ensure network compatibility prior to inter-carrier testing. Compatibility issues include call routing and message processing.

Wireless Resellers must be able to support the exchange of the wireless port request and notify the facility based provider upon receipt of confirmation to initiate the NPAC port process.

LNP is defined as a circuit-switched network capability that allows an end-user to change service provider (SP), location, and/or service type without having to change his or her telephone number. There are three types of LNP:

	Service Provider Portability: Allows an end-user to change SPs within a rate center while retaining his/her telephone number.
	Location (Geographic) Portability: Allows an end-user to change from one geographic area to another while retaining his/her telephone number.

Service Portability: Allows an end-user to change services (e.g., CENTREX to POTS, etc.) while retaining his/her telephone number with the same service provider.

The first area of number portability to be addressed in the wireless industry is service provider portability within a rate center. Service Provider portability, as defined in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, is the ability of end users to retain, at the same location, existing directory numbers as they change from one service provider to another. Historically, all directory numbers (DNs) in one NPA-NXX were assigned to a single telephone switch. The incumbent had a significant advantage in retaining a customer's telephone number. If a customer wanted to change local service providers, he or she was faced with the significant inconveniences of a new phone number, including distributing the new number to all of his or her family, friends, and business contacts. So in order to facilitate competition at the local exchange level, the FCC mandated that phone numbers be portable among local exchange competitors (ILEC, CLECs, Cellular, etc.). This is the key trigger in determining if a wireless subscriber can "port" their directory number. The new service provider must determine if it has a presence (i.e. its own directory numbers) within the same rate center as the wireless subscriber's directory number.