Ericsson Unified Number Portability

Meeting market needs

To increase competition, many countries have created directives to make it easier for users to change service providers. The key is number portability – allowing users to keep their existing number when switching to a new operator. This creates a challenge for service providers because of the obligation to share information with competitors, and to introduce infrastructure for storing number portability information.
   
The Unified Number Portability solution provides a common database for storing number portability information for fixed and mobile networks, supported by adaptations to the network infrastructure that meet existing business processes.

The end-to-end solution includes:

• Flexible Number Register that serves as the number portability database, either standalone or co-located (with Home Location Registry, Mobile Switching Center or Signaling Transfer Point), and can be adapted for any standardized method for resolving number portability in the switching side (IN or SRF)
• Support in the Core Network for subsequent network routing to ensure appropriate traffic handling so the flow of calls, SMS or other traffic is diverted to the target network considering the porting condition where applicable
• Mechanisms to ensure correct portability conditions are known for traffic activities, through Ericsson Convergent Charging & Billing, thus ensuring accurate tariffs
• Provisioning and administration of the number portability data, provided through Ericsson Service & Management Control, ensuring proper implementation of the solution agreed upon between the regulators and operators

Reduce costs and improve performance

Unified Number Portability is built on a well-proven, stable platform that provides excellent in-service performance. This results in high service quality while reducing operation and maintenance needs, and therefore costs.

By using the same solution for both fixed and mobile networks, you can also reduce your total cost of ownership, through both lower initial investment and opex. Our solution is based on open standards and if co-located does not require additional hardware, significantly reducing the risk of negative impact on the network and services.

Complete solution

Choosing our solution for number portability means you gain access to extensive experience and expertise in network infrastructure, service delivery and working in multi-vendor environments.

This competence, combined with the ease of implementation and activation provided by Unified Number Portability, ensures a short time to market of fully customized, end-to-end solutions that meet each customer's specific needs.