Garvey Schubert Barer Legal Update, May 28, 2010.
The FCC has released a Report and Order that streamlines the processes of porting subscriber telephone numbers between two wireline providers, a wireline and wireless provider, or an interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider and any other service provider. See In the Matters of Local Number Portability Porting Interval and Validation Requirements; Telephone Number Portability, WC Docket No. 07-244, CC Docket No. 95-116, Report and Order (rel. May 20, 2010). In particular, the Report and Order streamlines the number of porting process by standardizing the information that providers must exchange. The FCC also adopted recommendations made to it by the North American Numbering Council (NAC). Last May, the FCC adopted an Order that reduces the time allowed for transferring a number from four business days to one business day. The Report and Order ensures that service providers are able to comply with the one-business day requirement imposed by the previous Order. The deadline for implementing one-business day porting is August 2, 2010 for all but small providers; the latter must comply by February 2, 2011.
The Report and Order sets forth 14 fields for simple ports which service providers must use in order to port numbers within the required one business day. The FCC concluded that these standardized fields will enable service providers to comply with the one business day requirement, as well as minimize errors, inadvertent ports, and port requests fallout. The required fields are: (1) Customer Carrier Name Abbreviation (CCNA) (a three-letter code that identifies the company that submitted the Local Service Request (LSR) and the company to whom response messages must be returned; (2) Purchase Order Number (PON) (identifies the customer’s unique purchase order or requisition number that authorizes issuance of the request or supplement; required for carriers to track the ongoing progress of the port request and enables a carrier to provide order status to the end user or to make changes to the original request); (3) Account Number (AN) (identifies the account number assigned by the current service provider); (4) Desired Due Date (DDD) (identifies the customer’s desired due date for the port and is required to differentiate between simple and non-simple ports); (5) Requisition Type and Status (REQTYP) (specifies the type of order to be processed); (6) Activity (ACT) (identifies the activity involved in the service request); (7) Company Code (CC) (identifies the exchange carrier initiating the transaction); (8) New Network Service Provider (NNSP) (identifies the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) Service Provider Identifier (SPI) of the new network service provider); (9) Agency Authority Status (AGAUTH) (indicates that the customer is acting as an end user’s agent and has an authorization on file); (10) Number Portability Direction Indicator (NPDI) (used to let the new service provider direct the correct administration of E-911 records); (11) Telephone Number (Initiator) (TEL NO (INIT)) (provides the telephone number for the initiator of the port request); (12) Zip Code (ZIP) (identifies the zip code of the end user’s service address and is used to validate that the correct end user’s telephone number has been sent on the port request); (13) Ported Telephone Number (PORTED NBR) (identifies the telephone number or consecutive range of telephone numbers residing in the same switch to be ported); and (14) Version (VER) (identifies the submitting service provider’s order version number and enables service providers to track orders internally and make changes or modifications to the original port request; in combination with the Purchase Order Number field, this field is used by service providers to track the ongoing progress of the port request and to ensure the correct version of the order is being processed).
