New Entrant LNP Testing Meeting

Midwest Region Operation Sub Committee

 

 

New Entrant Document - Face to Face Meeting

April 7, 1998

1:00 PM CST to 5:00 PM

Call in bridge 312-814-8097

location: AT&T

227 W. Monroe, 4th floor

Springfield Room, Chicago, Il

Attendees:

Robin Meier Ameritech Co-Chair

Oc Jackson AT&T Co-Chair

Dick Dowd MCI

Darin Listin Sprint

Brent Struthers ICC

Sue Seitz Ameritech

Considerable progress was made. The document was reviewed and changes are reflected in draft issue 4 attached.

Discussions will continue after review of issue 4 either via E-mail or a conference call will be scheduled.

 

 

The Midwest Operations Sub Committee has determined the need to develop a document to assist Service Providers (SPs), that did not participate in either the Illinois LNP FCC Field Test 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 Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois) are conducting or have concluded LNP state testing with the assistance of the statePublic 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 initial LNP Testing is completed in a state, subsequent LNP testing between SPs will then be handled on an individual basis between SPs.

The initial point of contact for new entrants (NE) to request LNP 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. NEs should have interconnection agreements in place with SPs, where applicable.

2. The NEs 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 NE must be SS7 capable and should size their network to allow for increased volume produced by LNP queries. The NE should have completed testing of their internal procedures.

3. The NE will 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 1-888-NPAC HELP.

4. If the NE uses a hub provider for routing of Line Information Database (LIDB) Transaction Capability Application Protocol (TCAP) queries, the NE should provide a written statement verifying that the hub provider will accept the Originating Point Code (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 NE can begin inter-company network testing.

TESTING

The next steps identify what the SP desires to test.

1) Test scripts can be selected from several testing documents:

2) When the NE 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.

c.) The duration of the testing.

d.) The location of the testing.
    1. The scenarios to be tested.
    2. The telephone numbers required by each SP for testing (typically 1 to 5)

The process to establish telephone numbers may include the following: The service manager may instruct the SP to order bundled service through theretail 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.
    1. Documentation as to what constitutes a successful test.

Each SPs responsibilities during the testing.

It should also be noted that if the NE encounters problems regarding the porting of telephone number(s) during testing, the NE is to report these problems for resolution. All problems and their resolutions should be documented with as much detail as possible to assist other NEs during their testing.
    1. Agreement on the points of contact. Contacts may include:

overall project management,

ordering of service via the Local Service Request (LSR),

provisioning or maintenance.

Others as determined through negotiations

Once the above requirements have been met, 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 NE will be testing and on what dates.

To assist the NE 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 www.fcc.gov/ccb/Nanc

The NE should now be able to start the suggested tests from the NIIF and any additional tests they choose from the Illinois LNP FCC Field Test Plan.

(change wording to NANC flows) Once the NE has successfully completed their test scenarios, the NE 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. Theremaining half should be disconnected by the recipient SP/NE to test the snap back feature.

The final step is for SPs/NE’s to determine and acknowledge the successful completion of testing at the conclusion of the port to original and snap back processes.