The Midwest Operations Sub Committee has determined the need to develop a document to assist Service Providers (SPs), who did not participate in either the FCC Field Test in Illinois or other state tests in the Midwest region, and wish to perform LNP testing prior to entering the LNP market.
The FCC Field Test was a one time occurrence which took place in Illinois. Other states in the Midwest Region (consisting of five states) are conducting or have concluded LNP state testing with the assistance of the state Public Utilities Commission’s( PUC’s). However, it should be noted that the state PUC’s in the Midwest region have not required LNP testing be performed. When an initial LNP Test is completed in a state, subsequent LNP testing between SPs will then become a standard business procedure. Example, when SPs wish to perform LNP testing prior to entering the LNP market but were not ready to test during the initial LNP Test, they will perform this testing as a standard business process.
The initial point of contact for SPs to request long term number portability testing should be the account manager or designated person depending on the individual company. The account manager may then work with the service manager, if applicable, to set up the testing. The service manager or designated person will serve as the overall project coordinator of the testing. (Note contact titles may vary depending on company.)
PRE-TEST
The following items must be completed prior to the start of Inter-company Network Testing:
1. SPs should have interconnection agreements in place, where applicable.
2. The SPs end office or applicable network should be turned up in accordance with industry standards. A network topology drawing is recommended as a useful tool in setting up testing. The SP must be SS7 capable and should size their link groups to allow for increased volume produced by long term number portability queries. The SP should have completed testing of their internal procedures.
3. The SP must be certified by the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC)
serving their region. The Midwest NPAC is a database administered by Lockheed Martin and contains all the LRN information for the Midwest region. The NPAC contact telephone number is 1-800-NPAC HELP.
4. (Note: The group needs to verify this part with LIDB experts, should this be included in the document and is it accurate?)
If the carrier uses a hub provider for routing of LIDB TCAP queries, the SP must provide a written statement verifying that the hub provider will accept the OPCs and route the LIDB query.
The above requirements and recommendations (1-4) describe, in general terms, what needs to be in place before the SP can begin Inter-company Network Testing.
TESTING
The next steps identify what the SP desires to test.
5) Test scripts can be selected from several testing documents:
6.) When the SP has identified their desired test scenarios, a testing agreement should be established between all SPs desiring to perform Inter-company Network Testing . The Test agreement should document the following:
a.) The agreement to perform testing.
It should also be noted that if the SP encounters problems regarding the porting of telephone number(s) during testing, the SP is to report these problems for resolution. All problems and their resolutions should be documented with as much detail as possible to assist other SPs during their testing.
c.) The duration of the testing.
d.) The location of the testing.
g.) Documentation as to what constitutes a successful test.
overall project management,
ordering of service via the LSR,
provisioning or maintenance.
Others as determined through negotiations
Once the above requirements have been fulfilled, and the testing agreement has been signed, the service manager should notify all appropriate work groups within their company to make them aware that the SP will be testing and on what dates.
To assist the SP in gathering the needed information to perform LNP via the LRN method, a Network Data Form has been created. The Network Data Form is attached to this package. (To be added at a later date)
After the test numbers have been established, the NANC flows should be followed for the porting process. NANC flows can be located at…………………
The SP should now be able to start the suggested 16 tests from the NIIF and any additional tests they choose from the Illinois LNP FCC Field Test Plan. Once the SP has successfully completed their test scenarios, the SP should initiate a LSR requesting that half of their telephone numbers that they ported to other service providers are ported back to the original SP. The remaining half should be disco’d by the gaining SP to test the snap back feature.
The final step is for SPs to determine and acknowledge the successful completion of testing at the conclusion of the port to original and snap back processes.
NOTE: The following information below the line basically discusses establishing the test numbers. The group felt we needed SME’s involved in the ordering process to continue discussion. We also need to determine if this material needs to be included in this document or if it should be left entirely up to company negotiations.
Some of the information below may also discuss information in the NANC flows and may not need to be listed in the document.
The service manager will then instruct the SP to order bundled service through the retail business office. The SP should call in as though they are an end user requesting service and utilize the appropriate Local Service Request (LSR) format.
Once the order for the bundled service has been processed and completed, the SP can then send an LSR into the designated Service Center. The Service Center will verify that the LSR is accurate. If the LSR is accurate, the Service Center will FOC the carrier within 24 hours of receipt of the LSR.
The Service Center will issue the appropriate orders to port the numbers and notify appropriate parties of the telephone numbers, the order numbers involved and the due date. The order will follow the appropriate flow, and the number should port over to the new SP.