scope:

Introduction

In July of 1993, Ameritech introduced the issue of number portability to the Industry Carriers Compatibility Forum (ICCF).The issue was subsequently accepted and assigned to the Number Portability Workshop, a standing subcommittee under the newly-created Industry Numbering Committee (INC). The Workshop has provided a forum for identifying issues, discussing concerns and presenting proposals for number portability solutions since October of 1993. This first report documents and summarizes much of the activity that has taken place over that two-year timeframe. Since much of focus during this initial period has been on number portability among and between service providers, this report only touches upon some of the issues associated with other forms of number portability identified in Section 3.0. In addition, some issues and concerns with portability among wireless providers and between wireline and wireless networks are addressed. It is anticipated that as discussions continue on interoperability requirements, types of portability supported, roles of the number portability administrator and other related issues, additional reports and/or updates will be published.