[asterisk-biz] Number Portability

[Henry.Coleman]

RE: Number portability
In the UK the original owner of the number range always maintains
ownership and makes a small interconnect "handling" charge on every call
to the  subscribers new carrier -- Apart from an initial porting charge to
the subcriber (which the new carrier may eat to get the subscriber to buy
the service) the interconnect charge is rarely seen at a subscriber
billing level. Even at an interconnect level (inter-carrier) this charge
may be ommited on the basis of being too difficult to bill.
Interconnect charges are nearly always billed sequencially back from the
terminating carrier in the opposite direction to the call direction.
The main exception being Toll Free numbers
The imposition of this porting charge from one interconnect carrier to
another breaks this rule and consequently is very difficult maintain.
In reality, interconnecting carriers tend to stick it into a settlement
account for a few years (where it collects dust). These accounts can be
very useful as they can be seen as an Account Receivable or Payable
depending on which way the wind is blowing.


Henry Coleman [VoIP-PBX.ca]

> In that case I would also have some potential issues.  Lets say telco A
> assigns numbers to voip company B.  The law currently states that company
> B has the right to port the number away, but it gets real muddy I’d B
> assigns that to customer C.  Should C be able to port that number?  How
> can C prove ownership, since from the telcos perspective they aren’t  the
> customer.  What prevents evil person D from porting Cs number and thus
> hacking it.
>
> The customer of a certified phone company can port the number by law
> (generally).  If nufone went through a certified carrier it shouldn’t be
> that hard, the rules are spelled out.  Now there can be issues if a
> contract forbids porting, or if the carrier doesn’t want to let em be
> ported, but in the case of the latter there is recourse.  If however
> nufone went through a non-certified reseller then porting can be difficult
> with little recourse.  I don’t know which the case is.
>
> This will be more of a potential problem if S.2686 (senate bill in
> committee now).  This allows non-certified voip companies to interconnect
> with lecs and the like.  Porting may be more difficult in that case unless
> the rules allow for it.  This bill does a lot of unrelated stuff too such
> as bring up the broadcast flag, etc, but does go to try to put voip
> companies more like telcos without the certification.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>    >From: "Paul"<ast2005 at 9ux.com>
>    >Sent: 5/18/06 8:38:19 PM
>    >To: "Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk
> Discussion"<asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
>    >Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Nufone appears to be on the rebound
>    >
>    >Bret,
>    >
>    >I was strictly referring to protection of the numbers. I think the
> state
>    >and federal regulators need to require that portable numbers be
> offered
>    >in more cases(although reasonable fees may be charged). This
> requirement
>    >could be based on total subscribers, total DID count or some formula
>    >using such stats. My point is that I think it absolutely wrong right
> now
>    >that companies like vonage can port in a Maine number originally
> issued
>    >to me by Verizon but they won't assign me a new number that is equally
>    >portable. I think it would be fair if the regulators required you, me,
>    >vonage or nufone to do that once we grow to a certain size.
>    >
>    >I don't think DID's should be used as hostages when there is a billing
>    >dispute. All providers, regardless of whether they are a "real phone
>    >company" or not have to make the right decisions about extending
> credit.
>    >I say make them release the numbers and later they can ask a court to
>    >add those costs to the damage award.
>    >
>    >Trixter aka Bret McDanel wrote:
>    >
>    >>There are protections in place already.  Get writtecontracts that
> protect you as a resellerand don’t make promises you can’t keep with
> that contract, or be a real phone company so you can own the numbers.
>    >>
>    >>*RUMOR* has it (ie this is what I heard but haven’t independantly
> confirmed) that the reason nufone got shut off was they didn’t make
> their commitments.  If true, regulators should never be in a position
> to protect people that buy from companies that make promises they
> can’t keep.  If they did everyone would say they will do 100M minutes
> per month to get good wholesale rates, then if they don’t do the
> volume hide behind the law.  The solution is to be careful when you
> are a customer - 'buyer beware' - and only go with companies that
> aren’t  all talk.
>    >>
>    >>This isn’t  the first time nufone has had issues with their
> providers, the first time, according to many media reports, was
> nufones fault for not understanding the services they were selling
> and they got taken for about $400k.  This time it _appears_ it was by
> making promises they couldn’t keep.
>    >>
>    >>I personally would never use a company that has such a history, but
> that is just me.
>    >>
>    >>-----Original Message-----
>    >>   >From: "Paul"<ast2005 at 9ux.com>
>    >>   >
>    >>   >It would be nice if the regulators would protect NuFone and their
>    >>   >customers in situations like this. The upstream carrier gets
> dictatorial
>    >>   >powers and the end users can't get a hearing until after major
> damage is
>    >>   >done.
>    >>
>    >>
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