May 21st, 2008 – London, UK: Mobile number portability (MNP) has been a key part of introducing free competition between networks into the mobile space. Prior to the introduction of MNP you had to get a new phone number every time you switched mobile operator, significantly disincentivising such as move. The ability to take your mobile number with you when you change networks has removed one of the key consumer obstacles to switching and has thus created smoother competition and an enhanced customer experience.

MNP hasn’t, however, been without its problems. Every phone number is associated by the mobile phone networks with a particular operator and, when you move that number from its original operator, then confusion can reign. Without proper systems in place then a call or text to a ‘ported’ number would be automatically routed to the number’s original operator where it would find no recipient and would therefore be lost.

In the traditional voice and text world this problem has been partially solved by one of two means. The technically superior solution is a centralised database of phone numbers which details the current operator for each number. When a call is made the number is looked up on the database and routed accordingly. In other markets, such as Great Britain, this solution was not adopted at the time of MNP introduction and so a more ad hoc approach has been taken. Without a central database a call or text is initially routed to the original operator which then forwards it on to the ‘ported’ operator for termination at the customer. This system becomes even more complicated when a number has been repeatedly ported, leading potentially to several ‘jumps’ between operators as the call hunts for its recipient.

The problems afflicting ported numbers become even more serious when one considers the rapidly rising world of VOIP calling. Internet based telephony has rapidly developed from a beginning of PC-based applications to a central part of the corporate telecommunications portfolio. VOIP is a Least Cost Routing (LCR) technology, whereby a telecoms provider looks at the recipient of a call and then decides the cheapest possible route for sending it – for example, taking a fixed line call over a VOIP connection before sending it out to a mobile network to be terminated at the user.

The problem for VOIP arises when a call is to be terminated at a mobile number that has been ported from its original network. In a system where MNP is in place and there is no centralised database of numbers, the VOIP provider can no longer use the ‘network root prefix’, which identifies the number’s original operator, to identify the appropriate routing and so must look to other ways of accurately routing the call.

The solution to this problem comes in the form of what is know as ‘Mobile Network Query’ technology. This approach, provided by SS7 connected messaging operators such as TynTec (www.tyntec.com), uses deep connectivity into the global mobile network to ‘query’ a number to find its current network home. That data can then be used for accurate routing of calls, thus guaranteeing reliability and speed of routing for enterprise communications. These network lookups are vital to ensuring Quality of Service (QoS) in VOIP communications in the enterprise – by looking up the network of a number and ensuring its going to work before routing the call then it can be possible for providers can give businesses the sort of reliability they’re looking for in an Internet telephony provider.