Carriers grapple with LNP: Should the FCC or customer demand dictate implementation?

Although many wireless carriers will deploy local number portability solutions that allow them to deliver calls to ported numbers-saving them DIP fees charged by local wireline carriers for database lookups-they continue to fight the FCC on the wireless-to-wireless portability requirement.

"The big issue is, can the wireless industry convince the FCC that forbearance is warranted here?" said Pamela Riley, vice president of federal regulatory for AirTouch.

Like many other wireless operators, AirTouch argues that there is not enough demand for wireless-to-wireless portability to warrant such an expensive and difficult-to-implement capability. Wireless customers don't take issue with the porting capability, especially because many wireless users don't distribute their phone numbers and are growing used to having multiple phone numbers, Riley said.

AirTouch acknowledges that customers may eventually want portability; the company would prefer to wait until that demand exists before investing in the capability. "Other projects have a much higher priority," Riley said.

Although the FCC extended the wireless-to-wireless portability requirement until March 2000, it must decide on the case for forbearance by December. Riley said that the FCC seems convinced that portability is a necessity in the wireless industry now.

In the meantime, wireless carriers have the issue of DIP charges to deal with. The N-1 formula was adopted to determine who should pay for a DIP on a ported call, where N is the number of carriers involved in delivering a call. The second-to-last carrier is required to pay for the DIP. Because about 80% of all calls made by wireless users terminate on wireline and many of those are local, wireless operators are often required to pay for the database lookup.

Wireless carriers can pay the local carrier for the DIP, hire a service bureau to perform the DIP, or deploy a solution in their networks to perform the query themselves, said Mark Blumhardt, manager of OSS products for Evolving Systems. Companies offering LNP products say that, over time, it's much more economical to deploy a system than pay a carrier or service bureau.

Tekelec offers a program that shows carriers, based on their call volumes, the payback period for implementing LNP vs. paying another carrier for DIP charges.

Tekelec's LNP product resides on its Eagle platform, offering a solution that can handle high volumes of calls, said Dave Cox, director of product marketing for Tekelec's network switching division.

Implementing this LNP function may offer carriers other revenue opportunities. While some larger carriers may be hesitant now to implement their own LNP capabilities, the smaller carriers may see it as an opportunity. "The new entrants are looking at LNP and some of the intelligent network services as a way to break in faster and gain market share," said Herbert Manger, business manager of software systems Telecom Act for Bellcore.

Bellcore and other LNP solution providers say that implementing LNP offers a platform to build services such as prepaid or one-number services.

As for wireless-to-wireless portability, Evolving Systems offer products and said wireless carriers ultimately will likely need such deployments.

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