21-02-2012, 03:12 PM
Mobile Number Portability
1.0 Introduction
Mobile Number Portability (MNP) allows subscribers to retain their existing mobile telephone number while moving from one service provider to another irrespective of the mobile technology or from one cellular mobile technology to another of the same service provider, in a licensed service area. This service has been introduced with the intent of creating a level-playing field for all operators by reducing the barriers to entry. As part of the transition, all operators are required to upgrade their network infrastructure so that all voice and data calls across operators are routed through a central mainframe which is maintained and run by the MNP service provider.
1.1 MNP in India:
In India, this service is expected to be operational by the mid of 2009. The DoT (Department of Telecom) has issued license to two global companies to implement the feature in two zones. Telecordia, the world’s leading provider of MNP services has solutions deployed across none countries including the US, Canada, Egypt, Greece and South Africa has been issued with license for implementing MNP in north and west zone in India. Syniverse technologies, also a major player in voice and data solutions has been issued with license for south and east zones. The license issued in February 2009 quotes the companies to start service for metro cities by six months and other regions within twelve months. They will provide a “central clearing house” model for MNP in India. In INDIA only Operator based and service based number portability is launched and if success full would launch the other two also.
1.2 Charges relating to porting
(a)Per Port Transaction Charge is payable by the Recipient Operator (the operator, where the subscriber is willing to port his number) to the MNP Service Provider for processing the porting request of a mobile number – TRAI has fixed this charge at Rs 19.
(b) Dipping Charge is to be paid by a service provider or an International Long Distance Operator to the MNP service provider for dipping of each message. The service provider pays for the query response system database of
the MNP service. Key drivers for dipping are total number of calls, missed calls and SMS. The Dipping Charge is left to mutual negotiation between the telecom service providers and the respective MNP service providers.
© Porting Charge is due by the subscriber to the recipient operator for porting of the mobile number. The amount to be paid by the subscriber shall not be more than the Per Port Transaction Charge that is Rs 19/-. Operators are free to charge any amount less than or equal to this charge.
1.3 Porting time
The porting time is fixed at 7 days for complete transfer of mobile number to the network of the new mobile operator with a maximum downtime of 2 hours. For Jammu-Kashmir, Assam and the North East, the porting time can be extended to 15 days.
1.4 Lock-in period
The subscriber cannot opt to switch the network operator if the mobile connection is less than 3 months old. Additionally, if a number is already ported once, the number can again be ported only after 90 days from the date of the previous porting. The minimum period is required so as to enable the service provider to recover the customer acquisition cost.
2.0 Concept and Implementation:
In terms of concept, the MNP functionality is used only in MT transactions of voice and messaging. For MO transactions, the current flow scenario remains unchanged. Only for the MT functionalities, the mobile number has to be identified and the corresponding service provider has to be interrogated for optimal routing of the service.
There are two basic implementation of MNP.
2.1 Indirect Routing or decentralized or bilateral architecture:
This model works bilaterally between the donor and recipient service providers who are responsible for informing all others of the change. It would suit to markets with less number of service providers. Each provider will have a dedicated setup and comprehensive database of ported out and ported in subscribers. As the number of service providers increases, the bilateral approach becomes a great burden to all service providers involved in terms of time, cost and resources. FNR (Flexible Number Register) will help the service providers have the ported database in addition to the original HLR database.
2.1.2. Sample implementation of MNP in middle east:
In one of the countries of middle east, the MNP service is implemented in bilateral architecture. There are two operators available in the country and each have their own customized system for handling the MNP database. Whenever a customer wants to change his service provider, he visits the recipient provider and initiates a request to port in the subscription with the recipient provider. The recipient party then coordinates with the donor party for porting the number.During the process, the donor deletes the number from its HLR database and updates the number in its FNR – ported out list. Similarly the recipient party updates the number in its HLR database and FNR – ported in list.
Coming to the MT transactions, there are two possible options,
1. Call from same PLMN: As both the service providers have the complete list of Ported out and ported in numbers, the originating MSC will route the call either to its own network or to other network based on available database.
2. Call from outside the PLMN: As the originating network need not to be aware of the MNP functionality, it will route the call based on the number series database available with it. The recipient network will make further analysis for routing of the call by following the procedures mentioned in previous point.
2.1.3 Technical details
A significant technical aspect of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is related to the routing of calls or mobile messages (SMS, MMS) to a number once it has been ported. There are various flavours of call routing implementation across the globe but the international and European best practice is via the use of a central database (CDB) of ported numbers. Network operator makes copies of CDB and queries it to find out which network to send a call to. This is also known as All Call Query (ACQ) and is highly efficient and scalable. Majority of the established and upcoming MNP systems across the world are based on this ACQ/CDB method of call routing. One of the very few countries to not use ACQ/CDB is the UK where calls to a number once it has been ported are still routed via the Donor network. This is also known as 'Indirect Routing' and is highly inefficient as it is wasteful of transmission and switching capacity. Because of its Donor dependent nature, Indirect Routing also means that if the Donor network develops a fault or goes out of business, the customers who have ported out of that network will lose incoming calls to their numbers. The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom completed its extended review of the UK MNP process on 29 November 2007 and mandated that ACQ/CDB be implemented for mobile to mobile ported calls by no later than 1 September 2009, Prior to March 2008 it took a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the UK compared to 2 hours only in USA, as low as 20 minutes in the Republic of Ireland, 3 minutes in Australia and even a matter of seconds in New Zealand. On 17 July 2007, Ofcom released its conclusions from the review of UK MNP and mandated reduction of porting time to 2 working days with effect from 1 April 2008. On 29 November 2007, Ofcom completed its consultation on further reduction to porting time to 2 hours along with recipient led porting and mandated that near-instant (no more than 2 hours) recipient led porting be implemented by no later than 1 September 2009.
In a decentralised model of MNP, a FNR (Flexible Number Register) may be used to manage a database of ported out/ported in numbers for call routing
In India as MNP is recently launched Number Port process takes 7 Days as of now. Which is the Highest Turn Around Time across World.
2.1.4 Number Lookup Services
Service providers and carriers who route messages and voice calls to MNP-enabled countries might use HLR query services to find out the correct network of a mobile phone number. A number of such services exist, which query the operator's home location register (HLR) over the SS7 signalling network in order to determine the current network of a specified mobile phone number prior to attempted routing of messaging or voice traffic.
2.1.5 Issues with this type of routing:
• Routing to the ported user is indirect and possibly costly, because additional transit charges, interconnect charges, and/or extra conveyance costs may be generated even when the originating provider is the same as the terminating recipient provider.
• For the donor network, billing associated with ported and non-ported numbers cannot be differentiated easily.
• If the donor network uses a small, non-high-performance database, increased call setup time for ported numbers is inevitable.
• Due to the dependence on the donor network, the receiving network cannot serve the ported user reliably, because it has no control over the quality of service on the donor network.
• If the donor provider discontinues its operations or is experiencing a network failure, the ported subscribers cannot be reached even if they ported numbers years ago. This is a growing concern due to the increasing number of failures and the high cost to put these subscribers back in service.
