Local Number Portability LNP An Introduction 662021 1

Local Number Portability (LNP) An Introduction 6/6/2021 1

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 introduced a new level of competition in the telecommunications industry. As part of the Act, the FCC mandated number portability to all Local Exchange Carriers (LECs). Number portability increases competition and reduces regulations. To support the requirements of this Act, the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) was formed to “route, rate, and bill calls with respect to telephone numbers no longer assigned to the original carrier or code holder. ” (https: //www. npac. com/numberportability/the-npac-Neustar-lnp) 6/6/2021 2

Is it a Port Order? If the number desired is in service with another carrier, the number must be ported. An LSR is created in OSM and sent to Neustar or APS, depending on the System Prin Agent information. This information is available on the Location Information screen in the billing system. 6/6/2021 3

Telephone Numbers Telephone numbers are assigned to carriers by the North American Numbering Plan Authority (NANPA). Numbers are assigned to carriers in blocks of 10, 000 numbers, or an entire Number Plan Area (NPA) and Central office code (NXX). Before the 1996 Act, it was easy to tell where a phone number was located by looking at the area code and prefix, or NPA-NXX. Portability introduced a new level of complexity to call routing. How should telecommunications providers switch the call? What if the ported number goes wireless and travels state to state? Neustar helps solve this issue. This neutral third party provides routing information for telecommunications carriers. 6/6/2021 4

Types of Ports The most common type of port (and the type APO most often encounters) is the Inter-Carrier or Competitive Port. This moves the number from one carrier to another. Intra-Carrier Ports add a record to the NPAC to change switches for a number. This type of port keeps the number with the same carrier. Number Pooling porting means that a carrier is assigned a block of 10, 000 numbers. This allows the provider to allocate phone numbers as “native” numbers. 6/6/2021 5

Porting In and Out When a customer brings a number to our service, it’s called a Port In. When a customer wants to take his or her number to another carrier, it’s called a Port Out. 6/6/2021 6

Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) The NPAC assists with the porting process by providing a single point of contact for carriers to transition the number from one carrier to another. The Service Provider ID (SPID) identifies the carriers. Our SPID appears in the XML as the Port. In. LEC field. 6/6/2021 7

Service Providers The NPAC creates a Subscription Version that contains: • • • Telephone Number Currently Assigned SPID Type LRN Point Codes (LIDB, CNAM, CLASS, etc. ) Service Type Alternative SPID (Reseller) Billing ID End User Location and Type 6/6/2021 NLSP: Hey, we took your customer, and he wants to bring his phone number to us. OLSP: Rats. OK, what’s the customer’s information? NLSP: Joe Smith at 123 Main Street, Littleton, CO, 80111; the phone number is (303) 5559999. OLSP: OK, that’s Joe. NLSP: We are porting the number. (NLSP sends port request to NPAC) (NPAC creates subscription version) OLSP: We just got the port request from NPAC. Go ahead with the port. NLSP: NPAC, go ahead and activate the port. (NPAC updates the PSTN for call routing) 8

State Description Creating Request was successfully sent to NPAC, awaiting notification/response NPACCreate. Failure Request was successfully created at SOA but later failed at the NPAC Pending NPAC sent an Object Creation Notification or a Status Attribute Value Change Notification containing a status of Pending SOA passes receives “sending” statusrules, in Querythe response when NPAC When the request business NPAC Conflict creates a Subscription Old SP puts. Version the SV into (SV) conflictthat represents Cancel Pending the ported TN. Cancel The state of the. Canceled Subscription depends on notification. Version received from NPAC Active received from NPAC after SV activation is successful in the its status during. Notification the port process. Partial Failure received from NPAC after. Service SV activation failed in one or LSMS These states are. Notification detailed in the Neustar Failed Order Administration document. Notification received from NPAC after SV activation failed in all LSMSs broadcasting SV activation or disconnect to all service providers Notification received when Old SP requested to cancel an already concurred SV Local Service Management System (LSMS) but not all Disconnect-pending Disconnect request was sent for an active SV with future effective release date Old Notification received from NPAC for disconnect complete 6/6/2021 9

Subscription Version The Subscription Version contains: • • • Telephone Number Currently Assigned SPID Type LRN Point Codes (LIDB, CNAM, CLASS, etc. ) Service Type Alternative SPID (Reseller) Billing ID End User Location and Type In CSG, a Ten Digit Trigger transaction updates Charter’s system to put the TN in a transition state. The Build Subscription transaction notifies Neustar or APS to build the Subscription Version record for the phone number. A Check_SOA_Activation message launches the order. Another message appears after 5 minutes. This timing allows the partner SPID to activate the port order. 6/6/2021 10

How Long Does it Take to Port a Number? The FCC mandates One Business Day Porting for simple wireline to wireline and intermodal ports. Carriers can always exceed the speed of the One Business Day rule. A longer period may be requested by the new provider or by the customer. Complex ports may take more time. Also, some carriers may not be available on holidays or weekends. Carriers can port on non business days if both carriers agree to this; it can cause issues if support at one carrier is unavailable. When the port is active in Neustar, proceed with the order. 6/6/2021 11

APS or Neustar APS and Neustar both provide porting services. The Sys. Prin determines whether the order is sent to APS or Neustar. select * from OM_PROVISION. SYSPRIN_FOR_Neustar Important note: APS includes the directory listing on the FOC. Neustar does not. DL is separate at Neustar. 6/6/2021 12

Simple or Complex? A Simple port is a port of a single residential line or a single business line (with no complex features) from one carrier to another. Most Charter ports are simple ports. Complex ports can involve multiple carriers or multiple business lines. The NNSP Simple Port Indicator field shows whether the port is to be considered simple (1) or complex (0). If the SPI flag is on for the SPID and if the NNSP SPI field is blank, the port is considered complex. This field determines the type of timer applied by the SOA to the order. 6/6/2021 13

Porting Vendor Services APS and Neustar both provide porting services. Service Description Directory Listing information published in phone book and/or online sources Number Porting the number from one carrier to another Address Validation The service address must be validated CSR Request Important note: APS includes the directory listing on the FOC. Neustar does not. DL is separate at Neustar. 6/6/2021 NPAC Messages from the NPAC to carriers helps resolve issues CARE The Customer Account Record Exchange (CARE) helps carriers with long distance information E 911 Important information for emergency response personnel LIDBC Line Information Database contains information regarding the telephone number and location 14

FOC An important part of the LSR process is the Firm Order Commitment, or FOC. The FOC is the green light for the port to complete. APS includes directory listing on its FOC. Neustar does not. It’s important to remember this difference when reviewing LSR provisioning. Neustar always sends FOC with the DL separate indicator of YES. APS processes the DL with the LSR request, so the indicator is always NO. 6/6/2021 15

Directory Listings (DL) Neustar directory listings (DL) are handled separately. APS handles directory listings as part of the LSR. Ports in have a DL of NEW. Ports out have a DL of DELETE. For single residential ports, the listing information is NEW. The LSR is sent to the vendor and they determine to retain or delete based on the XML sent. If a Soap. UI tool is needed to push an order to TPP Complete status, ensure that FOC is received from the old provider. If the Soap. UI tool is used before this point, the DL portion of the order must be manually addressed. 6/6/2021 16

LSR Process 6/6/2021 17

Soap UI LNP Tool The Local Number Portability (LNP) Soap tool pushes the LSR task to TPP complete. It updates OSM only. This tool is used when the LSR task is complete but the TPP complete message was not received. 6/6/2021 18

Call Flow to a Ported Number Mark is trying to call Joe recently ported his wireline number. He was in Denver, but now he is in Littleton. If nothing changed, the network would send the call to Denver (the assigned city for NPA-NXX 303 -555). If the number is ported, the network provides information about how to find the number’s new location. This is called the Location Routing Number, or LRN. When a call is made to a ported number, the system searches for the LRN to route the call. 6/6/2021 19

Call Flow to a Ported Number Mark dials (303) 555 -9999. We already know that this is a ported number. The LNP Call Database provides the Location Routing Number (LRN). Joe is in Littleton; the LRN is (303) 782 -5678. Mark never knows the LRN; it’s a number to help the PSTN locate the destination number. The call routes to (303) 555 -9999. Hi, Joe! 6/6/2021 20

Troubleshooting • Always be cautious when reflowing port orders. • Check any errors and double-check any rejects. • Order intent is also a good place to check for issues; if the intent of the order does not match the action, errors and rejects are likely. • Review the XML code. • Are there duplicate fields or missing fields? 6/6/2021 21

Check the APO Coin site’s Porting folder for reference materials about the porting process. Helpful Websites: • www. nationalnanpa. com North American Numbering Plan Administration • www. neustar. com Neustar • www. npac. com Number Portability Administration Center • www. fcc. gov Federal Communications Commission 6/6/2021 22