mobile number portability

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MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY 1. Introduction,Technical details 2. Types of Number Portability 3. Service Provider Number Portability Schemes 3.1 All Call Query (ACQ) 3.2 Query on Release (QoR) 3.3 Call Dropback 3.4 Onward Routing (OR) 4. Comparisons of the Number Portability Schemes 5. Versions in ACQ scheme 6. Implementation 6.1 Number Porting Process: Procedure and Considerations 6.2 Call Routing 7. Typical Flow of Porting Data

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Page 1: mobile number portability

MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY

1. Introduction,Technical details

2. Types of Number Portability

3. Service Provider Number Portability Schemes

3.1 All Call Query (ACQ)

3.2 Query on Release (QoR)

3.3 Call Dropback

3.4 Onward Routing (OR)

4. Comparisons of the Number Portability Schemes

5. Versions in ACQ scheme

6. Implementation

6.1 Number Porting Process: Procedure and Considerations

6.2 Call Routing

7. Typical Flow of Porting Data

8. Factors Influencing Success of Number Portability

9. Challenges of implementing number portability

9.1 Number Portability Setup Costs

9.2 NP maintenance costs

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9.3 Call routing costs

10. Solution

11.HISTORY OF MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY

12. MNP IN INDIA

13. Number Lookup Services

14. Signalling System No. 7

15. Before Porting

16. DURING PORTING

17. criteria for successful porting

18. M.N.P LOYALTY

19. Expected impact of MNP IN INDIA

20. Impact on Subscribers

21.PORTING BY COUNTRY

22. CONCLUSION

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1. INTRODUCTION

Mobile Number portability (MNP) enables mobile subscribers to change their service providers or their location without having to change their existing phone numbers. If the subscribers are not satisfied with the services of their service provider, they can change their service provider while retaining the existing phone number. This infuses competition among service providers and forces them to improve their service standards to check subscriber churn. Many countries have made number portability mandatory to liberalize competition. Many others are in the process of

implementing it. A significant technical aspect of implementing number portability is related to the routing of calls or mobile

messages (SMS, MMS) to a number once it is ported to someother network.

enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.

MNP is implemented in different ways across the globe. The international and European standard is for a customer wishing to port his/her number to contact the new provider (Recipient) who will then arrange necessary process with the old provider (Donor). This is also known as 'Recipient-Led' porting. The United Kingdom did not implement a Recipient-Led system, where a customer wishing to port his/her number is required to contact the Donor to obtain a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) which he/she then has to give to the Recipient. Once having received the PAC the Recipient continues the port process by contacting the Donor. This form of porting is also known as 'Donor-Led' and has been criticised by some industry analysts as being inefficient. It has also been observed that it may act as a customer deterrent as well as allowing the Donor an opportunity of 'winning-back' the customer. This might lead to distortion of competition, especially in the markets with new entrants that are yet to achieve scalability of operation.

In India, MNP is launched recently which is Donor Led. Only the terminology is changed from PAC to UPC (Unique Porting Code).

. various call routing schemes for service provider number

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portability

. comparisons among various routing schemes

. challenges of implementing number portability

. best solution in terms of complexity of implementation, use of

network resources, and scalability

Technical details:

A significant technical aspect of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is related to the routing of calls or mobile messages (SMS, MMS) to a number once it has been ported. There are various flavours of call routing implementation across the globe but the international and European best practice is via the use of a central database (CDB) of ported numbers. Network operator makes copies of CDB and queries it to find out which network to send a call to. This is also known as All Call Query (ACQ) and is highly efficient and scalable. Majority of the established and upcoming MNP systems across the world are based on this ACQ/CDB method of call routing. One of the very few countries to not use ACQ/CDB is the UK where calls to a number once it has been ported are still routed via the Donor network. This is also known as 'Indirect Routing' and is highly inefficient as it is wasteful of transmission and switching capacity. Because of its Donor dependent nature, Indirect Routing also means that if the Donor network develops a fault or goes out of business, the customers who have ported out of that network will lose incoming calls to their numbers. The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom completed its extended review of the UK MNP process on 29 November 2007 and mandated that ACQ/CDB be implemented for mobile to mobile ported calls by no later than 1 September 2009[dated info],

Prior to March 2008 it took a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the UK compared to 2 hours only in USA, as low as 20 minutes in the Republic of Ireland, 3 minutes in Australia and even a matter of seconds in New Zealand. On 17 July 2007, Ofcom released its conclusions from the review of UK MNP and mandated reduction of porting time to 2 working days with effect from 1 April 2008. On 29 November 2007, Ofcom completed its consultation on further reduction to porting time to 2 hours along with recipient led porting and mandated that near-instant (no more than 2 hours) recipient led porting be implemented by no later than 1 September 2009.

In a decentralised model of MNP, a FNR (Flexible Number Register) may be used to manage a database of ported out/ported in numbers for call routing

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2. TYPES OF NUMBER PORTABILITY

The various types of number portability are:

. Service Provider Number Portability

. Location Number Portability

. Service Portability

Service Provider Number Portability:

Subscribers can change

the service provider while retaining the same phone number. It is

also called operator portability

Location Number Portability:

Subscribers can change their

service location while keeping the same telephone number

Service Portability:

Subscribers can change the subscribed

services while retaining the same telephone number. Service

portability allows the subscribers to enjoy the subscribed

services in the same way when they roam outside their home

networks

This paper discusses service provider number portability (SPNP), as SPNP is the primary form of number portability that promotes competition among the mobile service providers.

3. SERVICE PROVIDER NUMBER PORTABILITY CALL

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ROUTING SCHEMES:

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has defined four

flavors of call routing that support number portability. These schemes are:

. All Call Query (ACQ)

. Query on Release (QoR)

. Call Dropback

. Onward Routing (OR)

Before we discuss the technical aspects and various call routing schemes in detail, let us understand some terms in the context of mobile network and number portability.

. Donor Network:

It is the network that first assigns a telephonenumber to a subscriber

. Recipient Network:

It is the network that currently serves the

ported number. A recipient network is a network that a

subscriber’s number is ported to when the subscriber switches

the service provider

. Old Serving Network:

The old serving network is the network

that previously served the ported number before the number was

ported to the new serving network. Since a subscriber can switch

service provider any number of times, the old SP is not

necessarily the same as the donor network

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. Participant:

A Participant is a service provider who is not related

to the porting process in any way and still needs the routing

information for call routing and various other activities.

3.1 ALL CALL QUERY (ACQ):

. The Originating Network receives a call from the caller andsends a query to a centrally administered Number PortabilityDatabase (NPDB) also called central database (CDB)

. Network operators generally keep local copies of the CDB, whichis hosted on either a network element within their network or athird party network element

. The NPDB returns the routing information of the dialed number

. The Originating Network uses the routing information to route thecall to the new serving network

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3.2 QUERY ON RELEASE (QoR):

. The Originating Network receives a call from the caller androutes the call to the donor network

. The donor network releases the call and indicates that the dialednumber has been ported out of that network

. The Originating Network sends a query to its copy of thecentrally administered NPDB

. The NPDB returns the routing information of the dialed number

. The Originating Network uses the routing information to route thecall to the new serving network

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3.3 CALL DROPBACK:

This scheme is also known as “Return to Pivot (RTP).” The call steps are as follows.

. The Originating Network receives a call from the caller and

routes the call to the donor network

. The donor network detects that the dialed directory number has

been ported out of the donor switch and checks with an internal

network-specific NPDB

. The internal NPDB returns the routing number associated with

the dialed directory number

. The donor network releases the call by providing the routing

number

. The Originating Network uses the routing number to route the

call to the new serving network

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3.4 ONWARD ROUTING (OR):

. The Originating Network receives a call from the caller and

routes the call to the donor network

. The donor network detects that the dialed directory number has

been ported out of the donor switch and checks with an internal

network-specific NPDB

. The internal NPDB returns the routing number associated with

the dialed directory number

. The donor network uses the routing number to route the call to

the new serving network

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. This method of routing calls is also known as Call Forwarding

4. COMPARISONS OF THE NUMBER PORTABILITY SCHEMES:

Of the four number portability call routing implementations

discussed above, the ACQ is the only implementation that does not involve the donor network when routing the call to a new serving network. Thus, the ACQ scheme is the most efficient in terms of using the network resources for routing the call to a ported number.

The OR scheme requires to setup two physical calls - one from the originating network to the donor network and the other from the donor network to the new serving network. This increases the

usage of network resources and hence is the least efficient in terms of using the network transmission facilities.

The QoR and Call Dropback schemes set up calls to the donor network first but release the call back to the originating network that then initiates a new call to the Current Serving Network.

In the QoR and Dropback schemes, dedicated signaling circuits are set up between the originating network and the donor network when the originating network sets up the call towards the donor network. This complexity increases the signaling between the

networks and hence the cost of the call to a ported number increases

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5. VERSIONS IN ACQ SCHEME:

There are two possible versions of ACQ scheme. In the first one, the originating network always queries the NPDB when a call is received from the caller regardless of whether the dialed number belongs to any number range that is portable or has at least one number ported out. Number range covers a contiguous range of numbers within that range. Once a number within a particular range has ported away from the donor network, all numbers in that range are considered potentially ported.

The other version is to check whether the dialed number belongs to any number range that is portable or has at least one number ported out. If yes, an NPDB query is sent. If not, no NPDB query is sent. The former performs best when there are many portable number ranges. The latter performs best when there are not too many portable number ranges. The latter ACQ scheme is similar to the QoR scheme, except that the QoR scheme uses call setup and relies on the donor network to indicate “number ported out” before initiating the NPDB query.

6. IMPLEMENTATION:

There are two fundamental issues that need to be considered in implementing number portability in a country.

. Number Porting Process: This applies to the policies and processes for porting the numbers

. Call Routing: This applies to the scheme of routing a call to a ported number.

6.1 NUMBER PORTING PROCESS: PROCEDURE ANDCONSIDERATIONS:

Number porting process involves a set of parties, which includes donor (or current serving SP), recipient (new SP) and many participants (other service providers not related to the number that is being ported). The basic requirement of the porting process is that a subscriber needs to initiate a request to the service provider. The request can be initiated to either of the service providers (current serving SP or the new SP). This depends on the regulatory policies of the country.

There are two approaches by which the number porting database can be

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maintained and implemented.

. Peer-to-Peer approach,Centralized approach

6.1.1 Peer-to-Peer approach:

In this approach, there is a bilateral agreement between twoservice providers. The two service providers agree on theimplementation of number portability based on proprietary interface. With this non-standard approach, there can be multiple

commercial agreements between the service providers, which make it difficult to manage the terms of each agreement, and track the porting requests. This approach is very complex, and the complexity is further increased with increasing number of service providers.

6.1.2 Centralized approach:

In this approach, the regulatory authority of the country sets up the guidelines, policies and processes for number portability. All the service providers in the country have a shared and well-defined interface with a centralized NP administration center for processing the porting request of a number. This adheres to a clear set of service level agreements for each of the steps involved in the process and it is mandatory for the service providers to follow them.

Any porting request from any of the service providers is sent to the NP administration center

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first, to which all the service providers’ number portability solutions are integrated with. A request that comes from the new SP to the NP administration center is sent to the present serving SP for clearance and once this is done the central NP administration center broadcasts the porting information to all the service providers in the country. As specified above, the porting request can be initiated by either of the current servingSP or the new SP (recipient). This is decided by the regulatory body of the country

The centralized approach is the most preferred solution and is widely used across the globe. This is a highly scalable implementation.

6.2 CALL ROUTING:

As discussed earlier, All Call Query (ACQ) scheme is the most efficient in terms of using network resources. The advantages of using ACQ to implement number portability are:

. No dependency on other network for routing the call

. Easy billing for calls to the ported numbers

. Call set-up time for calls to ported numbers is minimal

. Minimal impact on signaling

. Impact on network complexity is very less

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7. TYPICAL FLOW OF PORTING DATA:

The porting request once given by the subscriber to the service provider (new or current serving SP) is forwarded to the central clearing administrator. The actual porting process starts from the central clearing administrator.

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The administrator clears the number based on the policies and processes agreed upon by both the service providers (donor and recipient), the number is marked as ported and the administrator or the central clearing house broadcasts the complete information to all the service providers in the country or as registered with the central clearing authority.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE SUCCESS OF NUMBER

PORTABILITY:

. Subscriber Awareness:

Subscribers needs to be aware of Number Portability (NP), its advantages, and how to go about it

. Simplicity:

NP success mainly depends on the simplicity of the process. There could be many rules that the regulator mayimpose. For example, a number can’t be ported in the first 6months of the

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subscription. Such forced conditions hamper thesuccess of NP

. Speed:

Speed is one of the major factors that affect the successof NP. Service level agreements should be stringent enough tominimize the time taken to port the number to other network. Thisincreases the level of customer satisfaction

.Cost factor:

NP success also depends on the cost of porting the number. The lower the cost, the higher will be the rate of porting. The cost here refers to the amount that the subscribers need pay to port their number to some other service provider’s network. This all depends on the regulatory authority that decides who bears the cost of porting. For better success and market competition, it is recommended that the new service provider, who is getting the subscriber, bear the cost of porting.

Handset subsidies and fixed-term agreements : NP has been agreat success in the countries like Finland where there are nosubsidies on mobile handsets. Subsidies given by the serviceproviders leads to fixed term agreements and hence limits theoption for the subscriber to switch to a different service provider.There can be other agreements, which can hinder the successof NP

9. The major challenges of implementing number portability are:

. Cost involved in upgrading the network infrastructure to supportnumber portability

. Cost involved in maintaining the upgraded infrastructure

. Cost involved in the usage of network resources to route the callsto the ported numberALLENGES OF IMPLEMENTING NUMBER PORTABILITY:

9.1 NUMBER PORTABILITY SETUP COSTS:

This is one of the major deterring factors for NP implementation in any country. There are

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many expenses involved in NP system setup. The setup costs include the cost of setting up the central NPDB, which maintains the complete information on the porting details, providing a well-defined interface for the service

providers to interact with apart from adhering to the policies setup by the telecom regulatory. Apart from these all the service

providers need to have NP gateway server capable of interacting with the central NPDB using the defined application programming interface (API). The NP gateway should, apart from maintaining an internal NPDB, provision the routing information to the respective network elements. Apart from these, upgrading the network adds to the cost. The service providers are supposed to bear these costs. The setup costs includes:

. Central NPDB setup cost

. Software development or upgrade

. Network upgrade

. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) upgrade Cost involved in upgrading the billing system

9.2 M N P MAINTENANCE COSTS:

Once the NP system is deployed, there are many other costs involved in maintenance of the system. The maintenance cost includes the following:

. Cost for the agreed procedure involved in the porting process

. Activating the ported number

. Provisioning the routing information

. Informing all the service providers of the ported number

9.3 CALL ROUTING COSTS:

Routing the call to a ported number is one of the major issues in NP. In case of ACQ, the originating network needs to make a query to the NP database irrespective of whether the called number is ported or not. Even the other schemes of NP implementation has their own impacts on the network signaling, database queries, and other network resources, which

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directly influence the network

traffic adding on to the cost.

10. SOLUTION:

Many countries have their own guidelines on how to share the costs incurred in NP implementation. Regulatory bodies can

consider the following points in arriving at a better model for cost sharing to implement number portability.

. Number of subscribers per service provider should be the base

at the time of setting up the NP System

. The service providers can incur the annual maintenance costs for using the service of the central NPDB. This can be for the

services used such as NPDB system and customer help desk usage. These costs should be based on the usage of thecentral NPDB or based on the quality of service such as the bandwidth for accessing the central NPDB

. Recipient service provider can pay for the costs incurred by the

centralized NPDB for any subscriber that ports to its network

. Recipient service provider can pay for the costs incurred by the

donor for each ported number

. The central NPDB should be a non-profitable or at most a reasonable profit making organization and there should be a

policy to share the profits with the service providers to lower their

burden.

. Service providers can be made stakeholders in the central

NPDB, though the regulatory body shall have the sole

discretionary powers to control the NPDB.

11.HISTORY OF MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY:

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MNP is implemented in different ways across the globe. The international and Europeanstandard is for a customer wishing to port his/her number to contact the new provider(Recipient) who will then arrange necessary process with the old provider (Donor). This isalso known as 'Recipient-Led' porting. TheUK is the only country to not implement aRecipient-Led system, where a customer wishing to port his/her number is required tocontact the Donor to obtain aPorting Authorisation Code(PAC) which he/she then has togive to the Recipient. Once having received the PAC the Recipient continues the portprocess by contacting the Donor. This form of porting is also known as 'Donor-Led' andhas been criticised by some industry analysts as being inefficient. It has also beenobserved that it may act as a customer deterrent as well as allowing the Donor anopportunity of 'winning-back' the customer. This might lead to distortion of competition,especially in the markets with new entrants that are yet to achieve scalability of operation.

Will Users Churn Out?

At the time when MNP was initially being discussed, the rationale was that customers arebeholden to a single number, and this prevents them from switching to a telecomoperator with more attractive plans, or better service or network reach. Over the timethat it’s taken to decide on and implement MNP, we’re wondering if it has been maderedundant by a multi-SIM environment. Consumers, for the want of a better service or totake advantage of multiple plans, are now keeping multiple SIM cards: this has led to anincrease in demand for dual SIM handsets in India, and new telecom operators areopenly talking about trying to become the primary SIM. That said, some incumbent operators, like Loop Mobile, might find users who have beenwith them for a decade, churning out to competitors; alternatively, or even users tryingout another operator for their secondary SIM, for a better plan.Who do you think will be hit more by MNP – incumbent or the new telecom operators?

12.MNP IN INDIA:

In India as MNP is recently launched, number porting process takes 7 days as of now. Customers are facing problems in getting portability to work as envisaged. The donor network is wary of letting customers go and find improper number of reasons to reject portability requests. The customer keeps getting calls asking them not to switch and even after refusing some of the tempting offers made, the portability does not get done timely

Mobile Number Portability lanched in the year 2011 , January 20

13.Number Lookup Services:

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Service providers and carriers who route messages and voice calls to MNP-enabled countries might use HLR query services to find out the correct network of a mobile phone number. A number of such services exist, which query the operator's home location register (HLR) over the SS7 signalling network in order to determine the current network of a specified mobile phone number prior to attempted routing of messaging or voice traffic

14.Signalling System No. 7:

Signalling System No. 7 (SS7) is a set of telephony signaling protocols which are used to set up most of the world's public switched telephone network telephone calls. The main purpose is to set up and tear down telephone calls. Other uses include number translation, local number portability, prepaid billing mechanisms, short message service (SMS), and a variety of other mass market services.

It is usually referenced as Signalling System No. 7 or Signalling System #7, or simply abbreviated to SS7. In North America it is often referred to as CCSS7, an abbreviation for Common Channel Signalling System 7. In some European countries, specifically the United Kingdom, it is sometimes called C7 (CCITT number 7) and is also known as number 7 and CCIS7 (Common Channel Interoffice Signaling 7).

There is only one international SS7 protocol defined by ITU-T in its Q.700-series recommendations.[1] There are however, many national variants of the SS7 protocols. Most national variants are based on two widely deployed national variants as standardized by ANSI and ETSI, which are in turn based on the international protocol defined by ITU-T. Each national variant has its own unique characteristics. Some national variants with rather striking characteristics are the China (PRC) and Japan (TTC) national variants.

The term signaling, when used in telephony, refers to the exchange of control information associated with the establishment of a telephone call on a telecommunications circuit.[5] An example of this control information is the digits dialed by the caller, the caller's billing number, and other call-related information.

When the signaling is performed on the same circuit that will ultimately carry the conversation of the call, it is termed channel associated signaling (CAS). This is the case for earlier analogue trunks, MF and R2 digital trunks, and DSS1/DASS PBX trunks.

In contrast, SS7 signaling is termed Common Channel Signaling (CCS) in that the path and facility used by the signaling is separate and distinct from the telecommunications channels that will ultimately carry the telephone conversation. With CCS, it becomes possible to exchange signaling without first seizing a facility, leading to significant savings and performance

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increases in both signaling and facility usage.

Because of the mechanisms used by signaling methods prior to SS7 (battery reversal, multi-frequency digit outpulsing, A- and B-bit signaling), these older methods could not communicate much signaling information. Usually only the dialed digits were signaled, and only during call setup. For charged calls, dialed digits and charge number digits were outpulsed. SS7, being a high-speed and high-performance packet-based communications protocol, can communicate significant amounts of information when setting up a call, during the call, and at the end of the call. This permits rich call-related services to be developed. Some of the first such services were call management related services that many take for granted today: call forwarding (busy and no answer), voice mail, call waiting, conference calling, calling name and number display, call screening, malicious caller identification, busy callback.[6]

The earliest deployed upper layer protocols in the SS7 signaling suite were dedicated to the setup, maintenance, and release of telephone calls.[7] The Telephone User Part (TUP) was adopted in Europe and the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) User Part (ISUP) adapted for public switched telephone network (PSTN) calls was adopted in North America. ISUP was later used in Europe when the European networks upgraded to the ISDN. (North America never accomplished full upgrade to the ISDN and the predominant telephone service is still the older POTS.) Due to its richness and the need for an out-of-band channel for its operation, SS7 signaling is mostly used for signaling between telephone switches and not for signaling between local exchanges and customer-premises equipment (CPE).

Because SS7 signaling does not require seizure of a channel for a conversation prior to the exchange of control information, non-facility associated signalling (NFAS) became possible. NFAS is signaling that is not directly associated with the path that a conversation will traverse and may concern other information located at a centralized database such as service subscription, feature activation, and service logic. This makes possible a set of network-based services that do not rely upon the call being routed to a particular subscription switch at which service logic would be executed, but permits service logic to be distributed throughout the telephone network and executed more expediently at originating switches far in advance of call routing. It also permits the subscriber increased mobility due to the decoupling of service logic from the subscription switch. Another characteristic of ISUP made possible by SS7 with NFAS is the exchange of signaling information during the middle of a call.

Also possible with SS7 is Non-Call-Associated Signaling, which is signaling that is not directly related to the establishment of a telephone call.[8] An example of this is the exchange of the registration information used between a mobile telephone and a home location register (HLR) database: a database that tracks the location of the mobile. Other examples include Intelligent Network and local number portability databases.

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15.Before Porting:

Step 1: You will have to go to the new mobile service provider's service centre or authorised dealer to request for number porting.

Step 2: Fill in a Service Registration Form and pay the porting fees for processing. You will be issued with a new SIM card.

Step 3: Upon approval, the new mobile service provider will inform you that you have

successfully ported when the new SIM card is activated

16.DURING PORTING:

you may receive the SMS notifications as below:

Consumer

Successful/Failed Validation:

"Dear customer, your Celcom port request has been accepted & activation are in progress. An SMS confirmation to change SIM card will be sent to you within 24 hours. Thank you."

Upon Failed Validation:

"Dear customer, your Celcom port request has been rejected by your previous service provider. Please contact Celcom for further details @ 1-300-111-000. Thank you."

Upon Successful Provisioning:

"Congratulations! Your Celcom service has been activated. Please insert your Celcom SIM card now to start enjoying the Fastest Network, Widest Coverage & Best Rates

17.criteria for successful porting:

i. No overdue amount.

ii. No outstanding contract obligations.

iii. Supplementary number(s) need to be ported together with principal number.

iv. Service subscriptions with additional number(s) issued to the account (e.g. data, fax and

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other value added services must be migrated).

v. Credit Limit is not exceeded.

vi. Account is active.

18.M.N.P LOYALTY:

.Acquiring a new telecom customer is six times more costly than retaining an existingcustomer

.Customer churn among mobile operators have been as high as 30%. An entirecustomer base

can switch between competitors in just over three years.

.The breakeven time of mobile operators for a new subscriber can be as long as oneyear.

.The typical company gets 65% of its business from its existing customers

.It costs 5 times more to find a new customer than to keep an existingcustomer happy.

.It takes 12 good service experiences to overcome a single bad one

.7of 10 customers who switch to the competition do so because of poor service

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91% of unhappy customers won¶t buy again from the company thatdispleased them

And unhappy customers will not only defect, they will grumble to 9of their friends

Satisfaction doesn¶t mean loyalty

19.Expected impact of MNP IN INDIA:

Overall, the impact on some carriers like Reliance (leader in CDMA services), MTNL(first to launch 3G) and Tata Indicom (ranked No. 1 in overall customer satisfaction)will be positive. Others like Idea are not likely to get benefits because of limited targetgroup and are even likely to see a negative impact. Market giantBharti Airtel will notsee any impact either way.

MNPis expected to reduce the cost of switching operators, making the market morecompetitive. Even though there are both direct and indirect costs of introducing MNP,all cost-benefit studies project that the effect of MNP

will be positive overall. Retail prices, termination charges, price elasticity, market shares, as well as entry andinvestment decisions are likely to be affected with the implementation of MNP

Idea Cellular andVodafone India are among a select group of telcos making franticmarketing moves to make the best of mobile number portability, or MNP, whichallows mobile users to switch between service providers without changing their number

Most operators, including market leader Airtel and Reliance Communications,however, have refrained from advertising over number portability as they don't expectany great impact from the new service

Analysts estimate the rate of subscriber churn at 6-8% among pre-paid subscribers,who make up nearly95% of Indias700 million mobile phone connections, and 1-3%among

post-paid subscribers.

More than one out of six mobile phone subscribers (17.6%) want to switch over toanother telecom company. Given India¶s mobile subscriber base of more than

700million, it could mean that up to 120 million people want to switch.Airtel andVodafone Essar will gain the most. One out of three consumers who areconsidering switching want to sign up with Airtel, and one out of five who want tochange will go toVodafone Essar.

But only half the subscribers who want to switchare dissatisfied with the service they get.MNPlaunched in November : In Haryana, less that 1% customers changed their operator in

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almost two months. More than 1,40,000 out of 19million subscribers inHaryana have switched their operators, according to telecom regulator TRAI

20.Impact on Subscribers:

• Subscribers can now use one number throughout their life and have the flexibility of changing service providers if they are unhappy with the tariff, service, connectivity,etc

• Subscribers are more likely to get efficient services at lower rates

• A subscriber can make a porting request only after 90 days of activation of connection

• Subscribers can also change operators within their registered circles only

21.CONCLUSION:

To implement number portability, the best solution is to implement the centralized system, maintain a common number porting database, and use the All Call Query (ACQ) call routing scheme to route the calls to a ported number. A trusted 3rd party, which typically reports to the telecom regulatory authority, can maintain the centralized number porting database

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