CHICAGO-Telcordia Technologies Inc. said last week it will now offer the Telcordia Service Management Gateway for Wireless Number Portability.
The announcement comes two years before wireless carriers must begin wireless number portability functions. While wireline carriers began phasing in local number portability years ago, the Federal Communications Commission said wireless carriers had until Nov. 24, 2002, before they had to implement the service.
Local number portability allows customers to change carriers without changing phone numbers. Telcordia said its system will make it easy for carriers to implement and manage WNP by automating the number porting process. While in the wireline context it can take up to three days to switch carriers and keep your phone number, Telcordia’s product can port numbers within two and a half hours and this time will probably go down said Bryan Mordecai, director of product marketing for Telcordia.
By offering its service now, carriers will have time to implement the system and complete testing before the deadline, Telcordia said.
Telcordia’s product was described as unique by Harold Salters, director of numbering for the Personal Communications Industry Association. “No one is where they are,” said Salters. Telcordia demonstrated its product at last week’s PCIA GlobalXchange conference.
One of the unique features of Telcordia’s product is it joins together the number portability functions with the interconnection functions Telcordia developed for the competitive wireline industry.
Prior to visiting Telcordia’s booth, Salters questioned whether the product would answer the needs of wireless carriers.
“Notwithstanding someone calling [their product] a `solution’ the wireless industry still has many logistical concerns about WNP,” said Salters.
The wireless industry has consistently said WNP cannot be implemented unless all wireless carriers switch over to WNP at the same time to facilitate nationwide roaming. This is unlike the wireline environment where local number portability was phased in over time starting with the largest cities.
Because the deadline is looming, carriers are starting to catch on, said Mordecai.
But, Mordecai noted not all carriers are in the same place. While he said Telcordia is in negotiations with two of the top 10 wireless carriers, other carriers such as Leap Wireless International Inc. are just now beginning to talk with vendors.
It was a representative from Leap that asked FCC Commissioner Susan Ness, who appeared at a one-on-one discussion with PCIA President Jay Kitchen on Wednesday, whether the November 2002 deadline was real. Ness said she did think the deadline would be enforced especially because of the need to implement number conservation through pooling. Number pooling-where blocks of numbers are assigned in thousand blocks rather than the current 10,000-block-is only technically available with number portability
