zPDB

The challenge

One consequence of the deregulation of the telecommunications market in 1998 is that phone numbers can be ported between carriers (number portability). A downstream decentralized process — exchange of ported data between carriers — was specified as part of the technical implementation of deregulation, this process having been modified several times. The current version (1 January 2011) applicable to the exchange of ported data between carriers is 14.0.0. This procedure enables participant stakeholders to create porting databases of their own on the basis of the information exchanged, the databases containing the ported phone numbers of carriers across the nation.

However, due to the downstream, decentralized nature of the process and the fact that the specification has been amended several times, data inconsistencies have arisen in the porting databases of the individual carriers depending on the degree of decentralization.

Reliable data (‘phone number X is currently allocated to carrier Y’) is absolutely crucial so as to keep the routing of phone calls as economical as possible. zPDB is designed to satisfy this requirement.

The idea

We collect the ported data of as many carriers as possible in a central meta-database. Each individual porting notification is assessed and flagged as the current ported status if and only if additional quality criteria are satisfied.

The result

With zPDB’s client interfaces data suppliers and other participant stakeholders have access to consolidated data. Three options are available:

• Via web client:
  A web client enables you to perform queries of ported phone numbers on line and determine the carrier of a phone number.
• Via web service:
  This same functionality is available to you as a web service, enabling you to query data directly from your customer care system.
• Via list export:
  zPDB can be used to generate entire sets and delta sets of data. Data export can be initiated from the web client or exports delivered daily via subscription. When combined with the STP sync module of InfPort43 you can create perfectly prepared import lists for your network elements.