effective administration of mobile number portability databases and systems – experiences from...

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Number Portability Company South Africa

Effective administration of mobile number portability databases and systems – experiences from South

Africa

By Clive FaganGeneral Manager Number Portability Companyhttp://www.number-portability.co.za

Number Portability Company (Pty) Ltd Registration No.: 2005/040348/07 VAT Registration No.: 4830231124

Key factors driving the adoption of third party central number portability system·

•In 2004/5 only BT and Sigapore had a decentralised call forwarding system which was already in trouble

•Most modern systems at that time had central databases either reference or reference and routing

•Requirement for SA was mainly direct routing but supporting indirect routing because of Incumbent fixed line operator and to ultimately support both structures


Understanding the value of centralising number portability database and order handling

•One single source of ported numbers

•Consistent approach

•One source of the truth

•Allowing operators to control their own routing

•No risk of fragmentation or routing failures if operators went out

of business·

•Flexibility to add or subtract operators

• Neutral party to ensure porting processes are adhered to

•Sla and systems management in one place


Competitive issues addressed with the Benefits of an independent NPC

•Neutral party

•Jointly owned by MNO’s and Two major GNP operators – no conflict unanimous decisions needed

•Participants treated equally

–Agreements

–Costs

–Terms of use

•No domination by largest Party

•Running of NPC by any individual Operator not an issue

•Interests of Operators and Regulatory body not necessarily the same –however NPC enforces regulations without setting the regulations


Understanding the support structures required for

efficient and effective system administration·

Background

–A company originally formed jointly by MTN, Vodacom and Cell C as a result of 2001 Amendments to the Telecommunications Act which mandated ICASA to: “prescribe measures to ensure that number portability shall be introduced in 2005”

–On 30 September 2005 Regulations were promulgated which mandated mobile Implementation within 9 months i.e. 1 July 2006

–In the event Number Portability was introduced on 10 November 2006

–With effect From Monday April 26 Geographic Number Portability (GNP) was Introduced. Bringing Telkom and Neotel into the NPC fold

–NPC is now jointly owned by Cell C, MTN, Neotel, Telkom and Vodacom with effect from April 20 2010.


•Composition of NPC

•10 Directors (2 from each of the MNO’s and 2 each from GNP operators)

•General Manager, PA and Accountant•SGT act as agents for Telcordia who provided the CRDB solution

•SGT provides help desk and software spport services to NPC

•Equipment is owned by Npc and hosted at T-Systems who also provide networking services for internet and VPN services


•Charging Model•Each Party, including the new entrants, funded NPC with an equal share of the total capital, development and start-up costs

•A revised shareholder agreement was drawn up to include Telkom and Neotel on an equal basis

•*Ports are charged at R50 per port giving a revenue based on ports, say around R650,000 per month. Each donor operator in turn charges an Admin fee directly to the recipient which is administered outside of the NPC•The company is a profit making entity with large capital write-off

•NPC makes a small profit from charging a service fee in addition to the porting cost. The service fee is an aggregate of all costs incurred including capital write-off together with a small profit margin as agreed by the Board of Directors

•After the first 5 years of operation the NPC is pretty much a self-funding entity and this is still true despite the introduction of GNP

* Note figures are purely illustrative


Number Portability Company (Pty) Ltd Reg. No. 2005/040348/07 Vat Ref. No. 4830231124

Porting Fee Structure

Donor

Network

Operator

Donor

Network

Operator

CRDB

Donor

Service

Provider

Recipient

Network

Operator

Recipient

Network

Operator

Recipient

Service

Provider

R15

R20

NPC Services•Hosting all porting services using CRDB and the OSS process–Charges MNO’s and GNP operators–Owns the relationship with the outsource providers–Manage the outsource Agreement (SLA) which is back-to-back with our SLA agreements with SGT/Telcordia–Provides a SFTP service of daily updated ported numbers to contracted parties at a fee. Currently 60 plus customers generating a healthy per month revenue. Monthly download fee includes daily deltas of ported numbers. For an additional fee a full download is available on request

The Porting Process based on the agreed OSS–Technically sound and robust (For Mobile initially, modified for GNP)–Many operationsin the world are using South Africa as a model “best of breed”–Average port success rate around 84%–To date nearly 1,300,000 mobile numbers and some 250,000 GNP successfully ported–NPC ports around 18,500 numbers per month


Number Portability Company (Pty) Ltd Reg. No. 2005/040348/07 Vat Ref. No. 4830231124

Can we port

your customer?

Can we port

your customer?MSISDN now active on our net

Deactivate

Yes / No

Operational

Database

Switches

Point of Sale

Activation

Customer Care

Billing

Network Mgmt

System…

Recipient

Operational

Database

Switches

Point of Sale

Activation

Customer Care

Billing

Network Mgmt

System…

Donor

Porting Company

- I’d like to sign up with Recipientand bring my existing number…

CRDB

Subscriber data

Credit Vetting

Administrative

Database

Administrative

Database

Basic

Validation

Internal

Validation

Yes / No

Yes / No

We order the port!

But don’t tell when

we will activate

Other

MNO

At Porting Time

The operators

internal replica

of the CRDB

Activate

Your MSISDN

is now activated!


Bearing in mind Our Mission statement

Which is:

To allow users of all Cellular and geographic services, to retain existing telephone numbers without impairment of quality, reliability, or convenience when switching from one Cellular or Geographic carrier to another”

Our flexibility was put to the test with the advent of GNP!

"

This was not as simple as it all seemed.•Originally we only had one fixed line operator

•Subsequently a second operator, initially called SNO, subsequently named

Neotel was licensed

•Our planning always allowed for two GNP operators albeit with some

modified functionality

–We had to cater for traditional copper-based telephones plus NGN radio/ fibre model (not simply an electronic switch)

–Managed (Prioject based) / non managed porting

–PRI ‘s of different sizes (eg 10,000 blocks)

–Change of address notifications

•We had a live functional Mobile porting system that could not be disturbed


But…•300 plus ECN licenses were granted by ICASA to speed up de-regulation

–Mixture of NGN , IP and various technologies

–Originally mostly ISP’s with technologies in place such as VOIP

–Mostly small operators

–Different interconnect models (including transit)

–Almost all had direct routing in place

•Potentially all of these operators could port

–Provided that had a fixed line number allocation

–They had routing codes

–They had interconnect agreements with Telkom and or Neotel


Challenges

•How to bring new entrants into the CRDB

•What Commercial negotiation and Agreements were needed for new licensees) wishing to be connected to the CRDB

•What mechanisms would apply for utilising the CRDB

•What about Testing, Training and implementation issues

•Manage SLAs with parties connected to the CRDB

•Ensuring that we met the regulators requirements for new porting entrants

•Development of GNP system was well advanced–OSS was developed–Process flow was developed–Inter operator testing was about to begin–The two GNP were focused on ensuring that they could successfully test and implement GNP by The ICASA regulated date–NPC was well aware that ICASA would require ECNS licensees to be able to port


Lessons Learned

•Market: past, present, & future:–Review those changes in the market share, leadership, players, market shifts, costs, pricing, or competition which may change the charging model or affect costing structures and/or recoveries

–In other markets, number portability has encroached into the Fixed Line arena. Therefore ensure that IP belongs to the Number Portability Company (NPC) and that the CRBD system is positioned to become THE Portability Solution for all telephone numbers (Fixed Line and Cellular)

–Bear in mind the abovementioned scenario in any strategic planning initiatives


Meeting the challenges by carrying on business as usual

•The management and enforcement of the CRDB outsource SLA

•Commercial negotiation and completion of Agreements with other parties (including new licensees) wishing to be connected to the CRDB

•Ensure all financial and regulatory reporting requirements are met

•Meet with Operators and Service Providers on porting issues

•Manage SLAs with parties connected to the CRDB

•Liaise and meet with the Regulator on any porting related issues

Also not forgetting…


Financial Plan

•Review the High-level financial plan that

defined financial model, pricing and recovery

assumptions, and ensure that these were valid

going forward.

• Prepare forecasts of expected costs and

recoveries

And…


Resource Requirements

Define resource requirements in terms of:

•Technology requirements

–Method of access

–Define user types

–Define brioadcast or download requirements

•Personnel requirements

•External requirements

–Products/services/technology required to be purchased outside company

Not forgetting to…


Review Risks & Rewards

•State risks to NPC–Competition act

–Requirement of other ECNS regarding shareholding and participation

•State risks to Service Providers e.g.:–Competitive issues could place strain on infrastructure

–High low end churn could prove to be costly

–Legal issues regulatory and common law could pose risks


The Black Swan?

•ICASA issues new Mobile License To Telkom!

•Implications?–Would existing plan for introducing new GNP entrants work for Mobile?–Could we have the same agreements and charging rules applying–Testing?

•Answer–Yes!

•Ripost What about mobiles wanting GNP?

•Answer–No problem!–Same rules apply–Everome treated equally


The Future?

•VOIP

•IP Telephony

•Enum


The Answer

•Business as usual

•Robust flexible solution

•Reference Database - not a routing system

•Good market understanding

•Forward planning

•Neutrality of NPC


So often Operators, Regulators and Cell/GNP

users see portability as a “network”

BUT



Network

Business processes

AdministrationBilling

Testing

Supply Chain

Systems

Interconnect

Customer Service

CRM

Strategy

Marketing

Sales

The Network is the tip of the Iceberg

Procurement

•Questions?


•Define why port?

•What is a number


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