September 5, 2002
ATS’ Network Data Guru on Key OBF 79 Issues
ATS’ Ken Babcock, our network data guru, attended the recent ATIS Ordering & Billing Forum (OBF) 79 and provided some insight into some of the important issues covered at the meeting. OBF’s work has significant impact on the entire telecommunications industry. In addition to many other issues before the OBF committees, key current industry initiatives include multi-provider migration, wireless number portability, and billing of IP services.
Ken states “Issue 2349 revealed that wireless number portability implementation is going to be an issue long before November 24, 2003, the date to which the FCC recently delayed WNP implementation.” This is because NXX Number Pooling will be a significant part of the wireless scene as of November 24, 2002, and will lead NPA-NXX ownership to be more than just a LEC wireline issue.
With number pooling, wireless MIN and MDN values do not have to be the same – thus, roaming wireless customers will represent the potential for MDNs to be misinterpreted in terms of LEC as well as end-user ownership. “The ability to go down to a thousands block within an NPA-NXX code to determine LEC ownership will be a must,” says Ken. “In addition, there are other scenarios where if SS7 signaling is not done properly the ability to determine call origination parameters may not be possible. In general, there are sure to be a growing number of ‘rocky roads’ ahead for both wireless and wireline carriers,” Ken adds.
Ken also attended the special session regarding state PUC proceedings reviewing how the OBF, operating on a national level, helps resolve multi-LEC ordering, provisioning and billing issues encountered on a state level. Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and New York proceedings were discussed. The intent is to reduce the potential for state PUCs requirements that conflict with what is negotiated at a national level between and among representatives of all interested parties. Interested parties shared information and committed to continue sharing new developments in this area as they occur.
Ken adds that ATS will be hosting a conference call on September 18th to review progress on Issues 2241 and 2308, also important billing-related topics discussed at OBF 79. On the conference call, Telcordia is to provide insight into how to deal with the various aspects of originating and terminating point identification in the recording standards for local number portability (LNP) found in Telcordia’s GR1100 document.
The
remainder of the conference call agenda is to review the user requirements
for recording of interLATA calls that are routed to LECs and terminated
over trunk groups that also carry local traffic. The issue is whether
LECs must identify which IXC originated a terminating switched access
record in addition to identifying the IXC that actually delivered such
calls to an access tandem. Today, such calls lose all of their IXC identity
once they are routed from an access tandem to an end-office switch over
a common or super trunk group. With changes that OBF is requesting that
T1S1.3 make to the SS7 signaling protocol, this will no longer be the
case (provided that the new SS7 data can be recorded at the terminating
LEC end-office).
For more information, contact Ken at kbabcock@atso.com.
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