RE: Federal Communications Commission - Number Portability for VoIP

There is an elephant in the room that no one (telcos) are talking about. We
have run out of 10 digit numbers. In the short run VoIP might exascerbate.
For example, I have land line, fax, cell and now potentially 4th number for
VoIP unless I consolidate. If I am risk averse I might consume 4 numbers.
Short term - telcos might do a NPA split like 310/213/949 to farm extra
numbers. LT they may have to go to 11 or 12 digits. This has architecture,
switching, design implications all the way to my advertising and getting new
business cards.

Personally, I do support LNP and owing my number for life. The telcos are
challenged in TN management, aging, database cleanup. Increased demand for
VoIP numbers will cause stresses and strains to their backends for something
they have not resourced and costs them to maintain.

Cheers

Ravi

-----Original Message-----
From: Jamiegraham2005 [mailto:jamiegraham2005@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 7:45 PM
To: Jamie Graham; Ravi Sodhi
Subject: Federal Communications Commission - Number Portability for VoIP

The Federal Communications Commission just issued a new ruleregarding
porting of numbers for use with VoIP services.

What does it mean? You can keep your telephone number when using VoIP
services. TelCo carriers have a 48 hour period to "Port" (transfer) the
number to your carrier of choice.

The FCC issued a statement saying telephone companies may not obstruct or
delay number porting by demanding excess information from the customer's new
provider. This focuses on LNP validation for a simple number.

The Four fields required to perform the Port of your number are:

. 10-digit telephone number
. customer account number
. 5-digit zip code
. pass code where required

As reported on newswires, Chairman Kevin Martin stated- "As interconnected
VoIP providers have increasingly entered the market, it is important that
consumers be able to transfer their number to and from these providers just
like transfers between carriers." He said he also supported the actions to
streamline the process and time required to switch from wireline to wireless
service in order to provide consumers the ability to change providers
"without undue burden or delay."

We will keep you posted!