Posted: 11/15/1998
It's the End of the World as We Know It
LNP Implementation Will Transform the OSS
By Mark Blumhardt
LNP is a complicated process for phone companies that involves more than an LNP signal transfer point/service control point (STP/SCP) application. It is more than just keeping track of numbers customers have taken with them to other carriers. It also requires updating orders, billing and customer records with other carriers as well as handling mutual compensation issues. This is on top of the challenges related to increased competition; for example, offering value-added phone services such as voice mail, advanced intelligent networking (AIN) and caller identification (ID).
But beyond the administration of LNP and issues directly related to its implementation, LNP forces fundamental changes in the way telephone companies operate. Currently, the phone number is used as an index that is key to all records and processes related to that account. When a phone number no longer is any indication of which switch or even which carrier handles the call, carriers will need to create new processes. Systems also will have to be able to communicate and share information not only among themselves, but also with other phone companies. Interoperability, which wasn't much of a factor before, becomes crucial in the new reality of LNP.
It's estimated that LNP will change the way most OSSs work, in addition to requiring the creation of 10 to 15 new systems. Among the most affected systems is service order entry (SOE). New providers will need to send information to the regional number portability administration center (NPAC) when they take in new customers, and SOE systems should integrate with other systems within the company to create billing and provisioning records. Otherwise, personnel must enter information manually into several different systems, which increases the chance for error.
Local service management systems (LSMS) also will have to be integrated to support LNP. Systems must track customer data to route and complete calls without relying on the phone number itself for routing information. Phone companies also need to track which service provider a customer belongs to for billing purposes; they have to do this with a new index now that the phone number no longer is an indicator of physical location or service provider.
Administration of telephone numbers becomes more complicated with LNP. Not only do phone numbers no longer correlate with specific geographical locations and carriers, but to which carrier the number belongs is subject to frequent change. When a carrier lost a customer before LNP, it was because the customer moved or discontinued service, and that customer's phone number could be used again after a certain period of time. With LNP, a customer can take a phone number to another carrier, so that phone number is not available for re-use.
Telephone number administration systems must be integrated with LNP so they can record which carrier a phone number belongs to. When customers bring their phone numbers with them from another carrier, the administration system has to map ported phone numbers to location routing numbers. Systems also must be capable of handling "snap back," when a ported number reverts to the original carrier if the customer discontinues use of the number.
Trouble management is another critical system that will be affected by LNP. When a carrier is notified that a certain number doesn't appear to be working, first it must be determined which carrier that customer actually belongs to and how that customer is related to the carrier's system. Location routing number and global title translation information from LNP systems can help in troubleshooting, but to get this information, the trouble management system must be integrated with the LSMS.
This is one area in which it is a definite advantage for a service provider to have its own LNP systems in place. Outsourced LNP solutions from service bureaus won't have that kind of data, and troubleshooting will be more timeconsuming and less efficient. In a competitive environment, rapid resolution of service issues can make a big difference to customers in differentiating between service providers.
More to Come
In addition to having an impact on current OSS, LNP creates the need for new systems. For instance, local phone companies now will need a system to handle customer churn. Before local competition, local phone companies didn't have to worry about recruiting customers or keeping them. Customers only discontinued their phone service when they moved or no longer wanted any service at all. With local competition and LNP, the situation on the local level could start to look like what we've seen with long distance carriers in the past decade or so, or wireless carriers in the past few years.
Local phone companies will be battling more than ever to gain one another's customers. They'll do this by offering incentives for switching and special offers for new customers. And just as has happened with long distance and wireless service, there will be some customers who have no loyalty to any one company and will be swayed by any special offer.
While it's never really good to lose customers, it can be worse to gain bad customers who will switch again before their records are even properly entered into the system. Churn management systems can keep data and identify customers who make frequent switches among phone companies or who don't pay their bills in a timely manner, so phone companies can avoid them and concentrate on gaining stable customers who are more likely to generate revenue.
Number pooling, which is being implemented in some areas along with LNP to relieve the exhaustion of local numbers, creates a need for new systems that will interface with existing systems. Number pooling will have a major impact on telephone number inventory and administration, in addition to affecting the ordering system. Instead of just assigning numbers from the carrier's own allotment, number pooling will require requesting numbers from the number pooling administrator. Port-on-demand situations in which numbers are assigned one at a time from the pool must be integrated with the ordering system. It would be difficult and error-prone to do this on a manual basis. Instead, it should become part of the ordering business process.
New service providers have some degree of advantage in incorporating LNP into their operations. Because they're starting from scratch with their systems, they can begin with OSSs that are fully integrated with LNP and interoperate among themselves and with other carriers' systems.
Service providers just have to make the right choice and be aware of the strains of operating in a competitive environment when they implement their OSSs. Although competitive access providers have the option of implementing their own LNP systems, outsourcing to a service bureau or leasing LNP services from an incumbent provider, some argue that it is to a carrier's benefit to implement LNP for itself. In addition to making troubleshooting easier, an LNP system makes operations more efficient and avoids "dip" charges.
Incumbent carriers face more of a challenge in implementing LNP. They already have systems in place that must be modified to accommodate new systems that handle LNP functions, and the new systems must integrate with legacy systems. Because ILECs have built many of their own OSSs over a period of decades, the requirement that OSSs interoperate with one other and with other carriers' systems means new interfaces must be developed to work with both new and old.
This all amounts to a total OSS overhaul for most incumbents. The overhaul can be either disruptive to carriers' operations or an opportunity to streamline processes and improve customer service. Carriers can take advantage of this chance to implement a shared services platform that integrates legacy and new OSSs.
Maximum Efficiency
The result is a more efficient overall system. With various OSSs working together and sharing information from a common database, the potential for error is decreased. Orders can be processed more rapidly and billing is more accurate. Carriers also have systems in place that can accommodate additional changes and new services. Incumbents could reduce the number of customers they lose by offering better service, and improved efficiency could lessen the financial impact of lost customers.
Image: Operational Support Systems (OSS): Poised for Overhaul
Source: Evolving Systems Inc.
Now is the time for phone companies to change their thinking about OSS. The new competitive environment doesn't allow carriers the luxury of custom-developing each OSS as it is needed.
The personal computer (PC) software industry offers a model that reflects the next generation of OSS. PCs work on an operating system (OS) that provides the platform for other applications. If computer users need to accomplish a new task--word processing, for example--they don't have to develop an application that handles the task. The OS platform makes it possible to purchase an off-the-shelf word processing application developed to run on that platform. In the time it takes to purchase and install the application, the computer user can begin the new task.
Because applications are developed to work on the OS platform, they can work with one another, even if they're from different vendors. Spreadsheets and word processing applications can access common databases. Word processing applications are able to import artwork from graphics applications. Other computer users with the same OS can share files using common applications.
Translating this to the world of telecommunications, carriers could implement an OSS platform that allows shared services among systems and among different carriers. Task-specific applications from a variety of vendors could be developed to run on that common platform. When a carrier needs a new system, the application could be purchased and easily integrated with other systems by way of the shared services platform.
Because all systems are developed to this common platform, they could access the same databases and share information with one another. The platform also would make it easier to interface with other companies. With off-the-shelf applications, carriers could respond to market changes and implement new services more rapidly.
LNP may be the end of OSS the way we know it today. But if carriers respond by implementing a next-generation OSS platform that allows full integration and interoperability, the new world ahead doesn't have to be frightening. It even might be better and more profitable.
Mark Blumhardt is LNP product manager for Evolving Systems Inc., Englewood, Colo. He can be reached at (303) 802-1180 or e-mail him at Mark.Blumhardt@evolving.com.
