How will MNP really affect your LCR?

The latest buzzword in the least-cost routing jungle is "MNP", or Mobile Number Portability. As happened a year and a half ago with the launch of "VoIP", MNP is being bandied around as the death-knell of Least Cost Routing (LCR). And like VoIP before it, MNP`s expected "impact" is being pumped up by a web of industry-created hype that is likely to have many telecoms managers frantically googling "consultant" as soon as their boss is out to golf.

So its not surprising that articles with doomsday titles such as "Number Portability could play havoc with Least Cost Routing", "Call routing costs may hit cellular firms as phone numbers go portable", "LCR vs MNP" and so on are appearing regularly in the press.

However when the hype is unraveled, the picture changes significantly:

First: what is MNP? By now most people can already answer this: it is simply the ability to "take your cellphone number with you" when you switch to another cell network. In essence it means that although you are now a Vodacom subscriber, your number may start with 083 or 084. While this may be confusing to your friends, it is by no means confusing for an LCR installation, which simply follows the rules set for it. (This does however assume that the rules are correct, which is what the hype-mongers will have you believe is not easy to do ... when in fact it is a basic feature of any decent LCR solution.)

Second: What is the effect of MNP on LCR? It merely increases the "granularity" of the current telecom network routing codes. Instead of being able to route a cellular call on the first three digits of the number, you may now have to go to 10 digits before you know for sure which is the most cost effective network to send it through. MNP is not rocket science to Least Cost Routing; most multi-channel LCR equipment currently installed will already be able to do this, all it needs is the correct number routing data, and it will be "business at least cost as usual".

Third: How much of a financial effect is the advent of MNP going to have on your LCR savings? The short-term answer to this is simple: very little. In fact, it is highly likely that your current savings on cellular calls will be reduced by less than 3% over the next 12 months if no action at all is taken to address MNP!! This is not to say that these savings should be discounted; of course MNP must be properly addressed to preserve optimal savings, however there is no need to rush into a (possibly costly) new MNP solution that is being sold on the back of hype over lost savings.

So what then is the "catch" and why all the hype?

In a nutshell, to properly control routing in an MNP environment the routing needs to be far more intelligent and easily controllable than current PABX systems can offer, and therefore the routing needs to be controlled by the abovementioned "multi-channel routing device" - which is situated between your PABX and your least cost routers. Some existing LCR installations already use multi-channel routing equipment such as ISDN multiplexers and analog line scanners. However the vast majority of today`s "legacy sites" have individual "Premicells" attached to individual analog PABX ports, and it is these sites that are "MNP incompatible". In these cases, the only way to "MNP-enable" your LCR installation will be to add a proper multi-channel LCR device between the routers and the PABX, which will be able to pre-select the correct network based on its advanced routing information.

How will MNP be managed? The GSM networks have contracted the creation and management of a master "MNP database" that will store all the details of all ported GSM numbers. This information will need to be downloaded to your LCR equipment on site on a regular basis, so that the equipment is able to perform the correct routing decisions on calls made through it. Of course the effectiveness of your MNP-capable LCR solution will depend on how often and how efficiently this routing data is updated. Some equipment providers are quoting a daily update, which means that newly ported numbers could be incorrectly routed for as long as 24 hours. Others are considering the route of querying the MNP database on each call - however due to lookup speed considerations, the query can only be done after the actual call is made, which means that at least the first call to a newly ported number will be incorrectly routed. In the light of the financial impact predictions given above, these methodology considerations are largely academic as the effects of "incorrect routing" due to data update delays under either scenario (or any other proposed) will be entirely negligible.

What should customers look for in an MNP capable LCR solution? Not surprisingly, the "business basics" remain unchanged as usual: the first and foremost considerations in any LCR solution should be the Service Levels and Guarantees offered. The actual equipment and methodologies used are really secondary considerations to quality of speech, call completion rates, overflow guarantees and cost guarantees. What will definitely be a consideration to the cost conscious client though is that all this data management comes at a cost to the LCR provider - and while the market standard is for LCR services to be managed free of charge, some LCR providers already charge a (seldom mentioned) "port management fee" for their "services". The likes of these providers will most definitely be padding the extra costs onto your LCR bill - at rates that could be considerably higher than the small amounts of extra money you will save by correctly routing 100% of your calls!

So why all the MNP hype? The telecoms market is one of the fastest growing and most hotly contested in South African IT today, and many companies consider this market to be in a "gold rush" phase due to the rapid development and deployment of new technologies combined with fast paced deregulation. As we saw happen with VoIP, the current proliferation of discussions around MNP is purely a guerrilla marketing tactic designed to shake up the market and "scare" a percentage of customers into switching LCR providers. (Though of course if your LCR provider is not on top of MNP and does not have a solution ready to roll on the 18th of September, it may be a good indication that you are backing the wrong horse!)