COMPETITION FCC order prompts number portability solutions

The Federal Communications Commission adopted rules last week requiring local carriers to phase in number portability in the 100 largest metropolitan areas by Oct. 1, 1997, and to fully deploy the service by the end of 1998.

After that, the incumbent carriers must allow businesses and residents to keep their phone numbers when they switch local carriers within six months after receiving a request from a potential competitor. Once number portability is available, consumers can select a local phone company based on service, quality and price, the FCC said.

The commission declined to mandate a particular technology to implement number portability, however, saying sufficient momentum exists within the industry to deploy compatible methods nationwide.

In an effort to help local service providers meet the challenge, Bellcore unveiled consulting services and software at Supercomm '96 last week that support the implementation of long-term number portability.

Each state will eventually have its own number portability solution, said Carole O'Brien, executive director of telecom reform and business development for Bellcore.

Many states are opting to develop Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) functionality, which will act as a service control point where all ported numbers will be stored. Bellcore's new NPAC service management system (SMS) software enables carriers to initiate, activate and manage the porting of numbers via the NPAC, allowing them to meet NPAC requirements being set by state regulators.

Bellcore also released two local SMS software solutions. One is a near- and long-term solution that uses Bellcore's Advanced Service Management System (ASMA), a client-programmable SMS that allows carriers to create and execute service management logic for implementation and provisioning flows. The other solution, the DBAS II system, is a near-term solution that maintains data for alternative billing services, calling name delivery and originating line screening, and handles service creation data for the rollout of new services.

Bellcore is also offering consulting services to help carriers implement local number portability, including impact analysis, cost analysis, systems engineering and project management support.

"Until now, there's been no business driver behind local number portability," O'Brien said. "It's been a matter of removing a barrier to competition without a cost-recovery mechanism. But now the incumbents know that they have to do this as part of their checklist if they want to get out and do other things, like get into long-distance."