Expand LNP - Unable to port my home # to DV

[muzak10]

Hi I bought the VOIP unlock key for my DV service over 2months ago, but still I am unable to port my home # to DV. I live in St. Albert (780-459), AB which is part of the greater Edmonton area. I know this is a separate exchange and FONGO would need a POP to offer LNP, but I would like to make you aware that there are several towns with large populations bordering several magor cities that would switch to DV if you established POP there. Fongo Steve please look into expanding your POP soon to these fairley large population towns.

[TheHardy]

This is also the case in several BC cities -- unfortunately, it seems that Fongo is rather "eastern-centric" around Ontario and Quebec.

I do not know enough about LNP directly, but I do know where St-A is in regards to Edm -- it is too bad that the calling areas are different enough that you are unable to port in a St-A # into the Edm-area. I am assuming that you have verified with Fongo/DV that you are currently unable to port your St-A #???

[muzak10]

Yes I have confirmed with Fongo/DV that my St-A # can not be ported into Fongo/DV. I want to make Fongo/DV aware that there are several large population towns that are geographacally on the door step of major metro cities yet since they are separate exchanges Fongo/DV has to establish a POP in order to make the existing number portable (LNP) to Fongo/DV. Other telecos such as Shaw, Wind, Rogers are able to port existing St-A numbers but the limitation is with Fongo/DV. FONGO_Steve please review.

[TheHardy]

Yes I have confirmed with Fongo/DV that my St-A # can not be ported into Fongo/DV. I want to make Fongo/DV aware that there are several large population towns that are geographacally on the door step of major metro cities yet since they are separate exchanges Fongo/DV has to establish a POP in order to make the existing number portable (LNP) to Fongo/DV. Other telecos such as Shaw, Wind, Rogers are able to port existing St-A numbers but the limitation is with Fongo/DV. FONGO_Steve please review.

I am aware of this, and it exists out around Metro Vancouver too -- however, all the cities/ratecentres around Metro Vancouver (with the exception of Aldergrove and Whonnock) share the same local calling area as Vancouver itself, so they are fully portable amongst all providers here.

As for St Albert, I know that it's calling area does NOT exactly mirror Edmonton's ...

As for other telcos, Shaw as POP in St-A ... Rogers (wireless) sort of does via the FIDO assigned NPA-NXX. Wind does not and and neither does Rogers (home phone).

That being said, I am curious as to how THOSE providers are able to port IN St-A numbers while NOT maintaining local POPs there -- this indeed would be something for Fongo to look more closely into, in their back office!

[TheHardy]

Re-visiting this to try to get a handle on the whole PORTABILITY issue and how it is handled. I have been doing a bit of research and found that there is no real documentation or industry-wide standard for this at all.

I sort of am hoping that someone with the insight or knowledge in this area (or maybe even a Fongo rep that is willing to share the information with me from a "back-office" standpoint -- not asking for anything proprietary, just the underlying INFO!).

What determines portability?

From what I have read, and found from the CRTC, tariffs, and other dry boring documentation, it has to do with having POP's and offering DID's (either your own or resold) --- but on WHAT level? I have found that it seems to be linked to the LIR (Local Interconnect Region), but cannot find lists or further explanation on this at all. It seems that it should NOT be on an EXCHANGE or RATECENTRE level, although multiple ratecentres around a geographic region make up a LIR (my reading is that a LIR is smaller than an NPA, larger than an LCA...).

From what I have read, seen in practice, you an usually manage to port in if your number is within the core LCA of the area and the provider you are porting in to has a POP within that core LCA.

However, this seems to contradict the OP's experience with trying to port in a St Albert #, even though he is well within the Edmonton-LCA.

In my neck of the woods, Metro Vancouver, Fongo only offers service in the ratecentres of Vancouver, Richmond, New Westminster, North Vancouver and West Vancouver.

OTHER providers, such as Telus Mobility (albeit the WLEC arm of the ILEC) have no problems porting say a NEWTON, BC (part of the Vancouver-LCA) landline over onto a Vancouver wireless # ... this is also confirmed from other carriers, such as Fido/Microcell. They don't need to (although Fido does) have a POP in that Newton ratecentre.

In Vancouver area, I have also seen porting of Vancouver-landline ratecentre numbers out to the White Rock ratecentre (landline), which is again part of the same LCA, even though they are separate ratecentres.

So my query, back to LNP, is exactly what the pass/fail criteria are? Are Fongo's in-line with industry standard, or are they tougher? And if they are tougher, why?

Class of service, whether it is VOIP, landline, mobile, should no longer make a difference.

Clarification would be great -- knowledge and something concrete would be better!!!

Also: any word on an LNP tool for the website to see if a particular number is portable???