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 or Technology GSM to CDMA or vice versa, 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

TERMINOLOGY from BSNL

point of view 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
"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. Name of Licensee Company No. 1 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. 2 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. 3 Bharti Airtel Limited 4 Bharti Airtel Limited 5 BPL Mobile Comm. Ltd.

Service Area

Type of Mobile LRN Licence Network CMTS CMTS UAS UAS CMTS GSM CDMA GSM GSM GSM 2392 2543 2724 2725 3026

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh Assam Mumbai

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.

MNP Zones & MCHAs

Zone 1 - STIPL
Delhi Mumbai Maharashtra Gujarat Haryana Punjab Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh (E)

Zone II - MITS
Kolkata T.N including Chennai Andhra Pradesh Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh West Bengal Assam

Uttar Pradesh(W)
Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir

Bihar
North East Orissa

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 subscribers 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

4. Forward Request to MCHA

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

Voice

2. Request to port

3. Verify the request

Telco B (Recipient)

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

Customer 8. Number is disconnected from Donor operator and provisioned in Recipient Operators Network Mobile Clearing House(MCH A)

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

10. New LRN is updated by all Operators

Telco C

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

Telco D

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

Technical Implementation

DONOR

G A T E W A Y

MCHA

G A T E W A Y

R E C I P I E N T

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.

Technical Implementation

M C H A
DB

SSTP L S M S

SSTP

LSMS : Localized Service Management System

MNP Functional DIAGRAM

MCHA
Gateway
Opr. A

Gateway Opr. B

NPDB

MNP Licensee
B&CCS Opr A LPDB Opr A LPDB Opr B B&CCS N/ W Elements Opr A.

Opr B

Abbreviations
NPDB :- national Number Portability database

LPDB :- Local portability database

B&CCS :- Billing and Customer Care System MCHA :- Mobile Clearing House Administrator

SSTP at Delhi

MNP Gateway at Chandigarh

DR at Chandigarh for MNP Gateway at Kolkata

Main site of MCHA-1 at Delhi Main site of MCHA-2 at Banglore DR site of MCHA-1 at Mumbai & MCHA-2 at Kolkata

SSTP at Mumbai Banglore

SSTP at Chennai

MPLS Back-bone

SSTP at Patna

Of BSNL

B&CCS at Kolkata

SSTP at Jalandhar

B&CCS at Trichy

SSTP at Hyderabad MNP Gateway at Kolkata DR at Kolkata for MNP Gateway at Chandigarh

B&CCS at Pune

SSTP at Kolkata

B&CCS at Chandigarh

MNP BLOCK DIAGRAM

SDCC
TANDEM

PSTN
TAX

M
MNP C M P L S M H A-I

PLMN GSM
MSC

G SSTP A

T
SMSC

E
HLR

W SSTP A Y

C
H A - II

HLR

MSC

BSNL - CDMA
SMSC

B&CCS

Commn. with MCHA & its NPDB

MCHA
CRDB

Regulator (TRAI) defines MCHA Specification

PUBLIC WAN

Operators Provisioning Systems

LSMS

LSMS
LSMS Cluster

SOA
LSMS
LSMS Cluster Operators WAN

SOA

LSMS
Operators WAN

Operators Provisioning Systems

NPDB

NPDB

BSNL

Operator B

36 |

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