Overview of Mobile Number Portability

- Randeep Kumar, SDE

MNP Definition

"Mobile Number Portability" means the facility which allows a subscriber of a mobile telephone service to retain his mobile telephone number when he moves –

from one mobile telephone service provider to another, irrespective of the mobile technology

or

from one mobile technology to another of the same mobile telephone service provider, within such limits as may be permitted by the licensor”

MNP Definition

Presently, Number portability is permitted only within LSA and not across LSAs, in India.

That means subscriber can change

• Operator say Airtel to Idea, or

•Technology – GSM to CDMA or vice versa, or

•both say Reliance CDMA to Vodafone GSM

While retaining his mobile number

MNP Aspects

There are basically 3 aspects to be taken care of by operators while implementing MNP :-

i. Commercial – Provisioning of Port in and De provisioning of Port Out subscribers.

ii. Call Routing in MNP Scenario

iii.Charging / Billing of subscribers for their usage.

Other aspects like strategies for preventing port out and promoting port IN customers are vital but not not in the scope of this session.

TERMINOLOGY

"Donor Operator" “-

means a operator from whose network the subscriber is porting out.

“Recipient Operator" –

means an Operator who will be providing mobile service to the subscriber after porting

Not Ported – Mobile Numbers belonging to BSNL.

( subscribers of 94 Series belonging to BSNL )

Port IN or Imported – Number ported into BSNL

from another network. (98 series BSNL subs.)

Ported Out – Number Ported out to another N/w

from BSNL. (94 series subscriber of Operator ‘X’ )

TERMINOLOGY from BSNL

point of view

Foreign Number – Other Operator subscriber not

known to be ported.

( say subscriber of Idea who may or may not have

ported to say Airtel )

TERMINOLOGY from BSNL

point of view

TERMINOLOGY

"Location Routing Number” means the code assigned to every Access Provider for the purpose of implementing Mobile Number Portability;

These are 4 digit codes and have been assigned by DOT.

They have been assigned LSA wise, Operator wise and technology wise

BSNL has been allocated 42 codes in total – 21 for GSM and 21 for CDMA.

TERMINOLOGY

“Example of allocated Location Routing Numbers”

Sl. No.

Name of Licensee Company Service Area Type of Licence

Mobile Network

LRN

1 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. Andhra Pradesh CMTS GSM 23922 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. Andhra Pradesh CMTS CDMA 25433 Bharti Airtel Limited Andhra Pradesh UAS GSM 27244 Bharti Airtel Limited Assam UAS GSM 27255 BPL Mobile Comm. Ltd. Mumbai CMTS GSM 3026

MNP Zones & MCHAs

MCHA Licensee for Zone 1 :- M/s. Syniverse Technologies (India) Private Limited.

MCHA Licensee for Zone 2 :- M/s. MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions India Pvt. Limited.

Zone 1 - STIPL Zone – II - MITSDelhi Kolkata

Mumbai T.N including Chennai

Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh

Gujarat Karnataka

Haryana Kerala

Punjab Madhya Pradesh

Rajasthan West Bengal

Uttar Pradesh (E) Assam

Uttar Pradesh(W) Bihar

Himachal Pradesh North East

Jammu & Kashmir Orissa

MNP Zones & MCHAs

Porting Process

Eligibility Criteria for making a port request.–

Every subscriber shall be eligible to make a request for porting his mobile number. provided that

(a) a period of 90 days has expired from the date of activation of his new mobile connection / 90 days from last porting

(b) there are no outstanding payments due to the Donor Operator by way of pending bills issued as per the normal billing cycle but before the date of application for porting;

Porting Process

(c) there is no pending request for change of ownership of the mobile number ;

(d) the mobile number sought to be ported is not sub-judice ;

(e) porting of the concerned mobile number has not been prohibited by a Court of Law.

Note :- In case of Pre – paid :- the balance amount of talk time, if any, at the time of porting shall lapse

Porting Process

• Subscriber desirous of porting his mobile number shall make a request in writing to the concerned Recipient Operator in specified format

• The subscriber shall pay the porting charge, if any.

• The Recipient Operator, shall the customer in the same way as that for a new subscriber

• The Recipient Operator shall thereupon ask the subscriber to send a SMS to Donor Operator using short code 1900 from the mobile number which is sought to be ported.

Porting Process

The SMS text for requesting UPC by a subscriber shall be the word ‘PORT’ followed by a space followed by the ten digit mobile number which is to be ported which shall be case insensitive. (i.e. it can be port or Port etc.)

In case the subscriber’s CLI does not match with the ten digit mobile number, UPC shall not be allotted but a message shall be generated to inform such subscriber that the CLI does not match with the mobile number.

Porting Process

• Upon receipt of the SMS, the Donor operator shall forthwith send back a reply SMS containing a unique porting code through an automated system.

• Directive of TRAI on UPC is dated 10.2.2010

Porting Process

Unique Porting Code will be of 8 characters – ABCDEFGH; where

A = Service provider code

B= Service area code

C to H = will be assigned by the donor operator and will consist of 1 to 9, A-N & P-Z only, and small letters and the alphabet ‘O’ shall not be allowed;

Porting Process

UPC allocated to a subscriber shall be valid for a period of fifteen days from the date of request or such time till the number is ported out, whichever is earlier, for all service areas

except Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East licensed areas the validity for the UPC shall be for a period of thirty days from the date of request or till such time the number is ported out, which ever is earlier,

irrespective of. number of requests the subscriber makes;

Porting Process

• Subscriber shall intimate the UPC to the Recipient Operator

• Recipient Operator shall, within a period of twenty four hours, forward the mobile number, the corresponding unique porting code and the date on which porting request is made by the subscriber, to the concerned MCHA.

Porting Process

•A subscriber may, withdraw porting request by informing the Recipient Operator in writing within twenty four hours of making a request for porting, but he shall not be entitled to any refund of the porting charge paid by him.

•The Recipient Operator shall be liable to pay Per Port Transaction charge in respect of each porting request forwarded by it to MCHA.

•SIM card is required to be changed.

Porting Process

•On receipt of the porting request MCHA shall verify whether a period of ninety days has elapsed from the date of its last porting and if any porting request in respect of the same mobile number is already pending

 • In case the porting request is found eligible MCHA

shall forthwith forward the details of such request to the Donor Operator for seeking his clearance for such porting.

Porting Process

Donor Operator will verify if the porting

is permissible as per the rules defined in the

TRAI regulation dated 23.9.09 like UPC is same,

Outstanding dues are paid etc.

Donor Operator will verify the above and

communicate to MCHA accordingly

within 24 Hrs (excl. Sundays and public holidays)

Porting Process

• MCHA will fix the date and time of porting such that the porting happens within 36 hrs of the clearance from the Donor Operator or on non receipt of any communication from the Donor Opr.

• MCHA will intimate porting date and time to both the operators.

• In J&K, Assam and North East the date and time for porting shall be within ten days from the date of receipt of the clearance from the Donor Operator.

Porting Process

Recipient Operator shall communicate the

same, to the concerned subscriber via SMS.

The porting will be break before make.

Donor Opr. will disconnect the subs at the time specified by MCHA and intimate MCHA. (1 Hr. window)

MCHA will then ask Recipient Opr. to connect.

Recipient Opr. will connect and intimate MCHA (1 Hr. window)

Porting Process

MCHA will broadcast MSISDN and LRN to all Oprs. for call routing.

Donor Operator will issue Bill to the ported out Post paid Subscriber for his unbilled usage till the time of porting. Subs. Will have to pay within stipulated period.

In case not paid, Donor Opr. Will take necessary steps for recovery. Further, Donor Opr. Will request MCHA to get the subs disconnected. MCHA will ask the Recipient Opr. For the same who is bound to do so.

Porting Process

•In case, subscriber surrenders his connection

or the number gets disconnected, the Mobile

number will be returned by the Recipient Opr.

to the Operator owning the number series.

•Cases under Lawful Interception !!!

Number Portability Business Process

Telco A ( Donor)

Customer

1. Request to switch to Telco A (Porting Number)

2. Request to port

5. Approve or Reject, if approved forward request to Donor Operator

4. Forward Request to MCHA

6. Approve or Reject, if approved forward approval to MCHA

7. MCHA fix the porting window and convey it to Donor and Recipient Operator

8. Number is disconnected from Donor operator and provisioned in Recipient Operators Network

3. Verify the request

Voice

MobileClearing

House(MCHA)

9. LRN of Recipient Operator is defined against the Mobile Number

10. New LRN is updated by all Operators

Telco B (Recipient)

Telco D Telco C

DONOR

GATEWAY

MCHA

GATEWAY

RECIPIENT

Technical Implementation

Porting Process

MCHA Gateways sites

•MCHA-1 at Delhi and DR at Mumbai.

•MCHA-2 at Banglore and DR at Kolkata.

Porting Process

BSNL MNP Gateways

•MNP Gateways at Chandigarh and Kolkatta

with DR.

•Chandigarh to cater for North and West Zones.

•Kol to cater for East and South Zones.

MCHA

DB

LSMS

SSTP

SSTP

Technical Implementation

LSMS : Localized Service Management System

MCHA

NPDB

MNP Licensee

Gateway

Opr. A

Gateway

Opr. B

B&CCS

Opr AB&CCS

Opr B

LPDB Opr A

N/ W Elements

Opr A.

LPDB Opr B

MNP Functional DIAGRAM

Abbreviations

•NPDB :- national Number Portability database

•LPDB :- Local portability database

•B&CCS :- Billing and Customer Care System

•MCHA :- Mobile Clearing House Administrator

     

MPLS

Back-bone 

Of

BSNL

MNP Gateway at

Chandigarh

DR at Chandigarh for MNP Gateway

at Kolkata

MNP Gateway at

Kolkata

DR at Kolkata for MNP

Gateway at Chandigarh

Main site of MCHA-1 at

Delhi

B&CCS at Kolkata

DR site of MCHA-1 at Mumbai & MCHA-2 at

Kolkata

Main site of MCHA-2 at

Banglore

B&CCS at Chandigarh

B&CCS at Pune

B&CCS at Trichy

SSTP at Delhi

SSTP at MumbaiSSTP at Banglore

SSTP at Chennai

SSTP at Patna

SSTP at Jalandhar

SSTP at Hyderabad

SSTP at Kolkata

     

MSCMSC

HLRHLR

SDCCTANDEM

SDCCTANDEM

TAXTAX

SMSCSMSC

MSCMSCHLRHLR

SMSCSMSC

SSTP

SSTP

PSTN

PLMN

GSM

BSNL - CDMA

MNP

G

A

T

E

W

A

Y

M

P

L

S

M

C

H

A - I

M

C

H

A - II

MNP BLOCK DIAGRAM

B&CCS

Commn. with MCHA & its NPDB

36 |

Operators’ Provisioning

SystemsSOA

LSMS

LSMS

LSMS Cluster

MCHA

Operator’sWAN

NPDB

Regulator (TRAI) defines MCHA Specification

Operators’ ProvisioningSystems

SOALSMS

LSMS

LSMS Cluster

Operator’sWAN

NPDB

PUBLICWAN

BSNL Operator B

CRDBCRDB

Eagle

NP DB

EPAPEPAP

Eagle

NP DB

EPAPEPAP

Eagle

NP DB

EPAPEPAP

Eagle

NP DB

EPAPEPAP

Eagle

NP DB

EPAPEPAP

EagleEagleEagle

NP DBNP DB

EPAPEPAPEPAPEPAP

Eagle

NP DB

EPAPEPAP

EagleEagleEagle

NP DBNP DB

EPAPEPAPEPAPEPAP

Eagle

NP DB

EPAPEPAP

EagleEagleEagle

NP DBNP DB

EPAPEPAPEPAPEPAP

Eagle

NP DB

EPAPEPAP

EagleEagleEagle

NP DBNP DB

EPAPEPAPEPAPEPAP

Call Routing

1. All call query to be done for routing mobile

terminated calls originated from any network.

2. Every Access Provider on whose network a call

originates shall be responsible for the correct

routing of such call in accordance with the

Location Routing Number (LRN).

Call Routing

•10- 15 % impact on BHCA handling capacity.

•All network elements to be upgraded HLR, MSC, MSC Server, MGW, IN, SMSC, MMSC, SDP, OTA, B&CCS, etc.

•Content Service Providers to also make changes.

• Cost of up-gradation of network to be borne

by respective service Providers.

Charging / Billing

• Billing for Mobile terminated calls to be done

based on LRN. ALL CDRs, INs and Billing

platforms to be changed accordingly.

• In view of Differential charging Off Net /

On Net calls, originating Switch to know

terminating network. As such each SSTP to

contain NPDB of entire country

THANK YOU