MNP OSG - Administration and Structure

Version 10, 19 November 2009

MNP OSG - Administration and Structure

MNP Status and Background

On 4th January 1999 Mobile Number Portability (MNP) was launched in the UK. For the first time mobile phone users were able to take their mobile number with them when changing mobile communications provider.

The process that made MNP possible took a cross industry team over 18 months to develop and although technically sound proved complex to implement throughout the Network Operators and Service Providers (SP).

The cross industry MNP group reviewed the process in mid 1999 as a result of the feedback received. It was agreed that the problems encountered since launch could not be overcome without a fundamental change to the MNP process. A small working group was set up to develop a new porting process in order to address these issues.

The new donor-led process aimed to more fully meet both customer and industry expectations by reducing the opportunities for the port action not to happen on the agreed day whilst reducing operational costs by using Internet web based solutions for communicating between SP’s.

On 16 November 2006, Ofcom published a consultation – “Review of General Condition 18 – Number Portability” in which it noted that excessively long port lead times may discourage consumers from switching provider and therefore proposed shorter porting lead times for the Consumer process.

On 17 July 2007, Ofcom concluded its review by releasing a notification of modification to the General Condition 18 (July Decision) which required the porting lead times of the Consumer process to be reduced to 2 business days by no later than 31 March 2008. This change was put into effect on 18 March 2008. The revised Process Manual prepared by the OSG is available on the public part of the MNP OSG website (

On 17 July 2007 Ofcom published another consultation – “Arrangements for porting phone numbers when customers switch supplier - A review of General Condition 18” in which it considered a further reduction of the porting lead time (from 2 business days) to less than 2 hours and, in recognition of the low levels of consumer awareness of the right to port, a switch from the donor led process to a recipient led process.

On 29 November 2007, Ofcom released its concluding statement – “Telephone number portability for consumers switching suppliers” and a notification of modification to the General Condition 18 (November Decision) requiring the implementation of a near-instant (no more than 2 hours) recipient led Consumer porting process and establishment of a central database of ported mobile numbers for direct routing of calls to mobile numbers as soon as reasonably practicable and, in any event, by 1 September 2009.

During 2008, UKPorting managed the preparation of the recipient-led new process needed to meet this new requirement. (see

Vodafone supported by BT, Telefonica-O2, Orange and T-Mobile appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal against the decision of the Office of Communications (“OFCOM”) to modify Part 1 and General Condition 18 of Part 2 of the General Conditions regarding number portability, as set out in Annex 2 to the concluding statement entitled “Telephone number portability for consumers switching suppliers” (“the Decision”), published on 29 November 2007.

In Judgement 1094 on 18 September the CAT found in favour of the appeal and remitted the whole matter to OFCOM for reconsideration. OFCOM has consulted all interested parties on both the porting process and the routing arrangements and responses are available on:

Ofcom is currently considering these responses.

The current legal requirement for MNP is therefore still the version of General Condition 18 with the amendment published on 17 July 2007 to require two day porting using the donor led system. A consolidated version of GC18 is available in the following file:

Number portability is also under review by the Commission in the revision of the Universal Services Directive and the Commission is proposing that the time for porting should be limited to one day. This requirement will probably refer to the actions by the donor and allow the recipient more flexibility over the timing.

MNP OSG

The MNP Operator Steering Group is the group established amongst MNOs to manage the operational aspects of MNP. Face-to-face meetings are held monthly with subsequent meetings agreed at each meeting. The operation of the MNP OSG is governed by the OSG Constitution, which is available from the MNP Production Manager upon request.

There are two different classes of member:

• Executive Members who have funded the capital cost of the current Syniverse MNP system
• Participating Members who have joined more recently and have not funded the MNP system.

OSG Administrative Committee

The Administration Committee is the decision making body of the OSG. It currently has 7 seats and an independent Chair. One seat is held by each Executive member and two seats by chosen representatives of the Participating Members. There are currently 8 Participating Members.

The following table summarises the quorum and voting for formal decisions at the OSG with the current number of seats - the figures will change if the number of seats changes in the future.

Votes in favour
7 / Pass
6 / Pass / Pass
5 / Pass / Pass / Pass
4 / Fail / Fail / Pass* / *Not for Constitution
1-3 / Fail / Fail / Fail
Members present / 7 / 6 / 5 / No quorum

Number of Executive members and Delegated Representatives = 7

Quorum = 7 *2/3 = 4.67 so with rounding up = 5

Normal decisions

Decisions = 3/4 majority of members present

7 present  5.25 so with rounding down = 5

6 present  4.5 so with rounding up = 5

5 present  3.75 so with rounding up = 4

Changes to Constitution

Quorum = 7*3/4 = 5.25 so with rounding down = 5

Decisions = 3/4 majority of members (not members present)  5.25 so with rounding down = 5

Groups that interact with or come under the OSG are:

Participating Members Working Group (PMWG)

This group hold monthly phone conferences and is attended by OSG members that are not Executive Members as set out in the OSG constitution.

Chair:

This group is set up to allow the non-Executive OSG members to have collective representation, which is fed into the OSG Administration Committee via the Participating Members.

Operator Technical Group (OTG)

This group meets on alternate months and is attended by MNOs.

Chair: MNP Production Manager Alex McKillop 07976 894 504;

This group is responsible for ensuring the technical platforms that support the porting process are in order. Currently there are no major the issues the OTG are working on. This group may hold meetings via phone conference in the future if there are not enough issues to justify a physical meeting.

Operator Review Group (ORG)

This group hold monthly phone conferences and is attended by MNOs and Services Providers.

Chair: MNP Production Manager Alex McKillop 07976 894 504;

This group is made up of individuals that carry out porting activities on behalf of the customer. The monthly meetings serve as a place to raise any operational issues that may arise. The group completed in 2008 the change from 5 day to 2 day Port Lead Time.

On a technical and operational level, Syniverse offer a support desk, which is open from 9-6pm Monday through Saturday.

OSG Staff

The OSG employs the OSG Chair and the MNP Production Manager.

John Horrocks is the OSG Chair and is presently contracted 3 days per month via FCS

Tel: 01483 797807; ; Skype: johnhorrocks

Alex McKillop is the MNP Production Manager and is presently contracted 8days per month via FCS

Tel: 07976 894 504;

Federation of Communication Services (FCS)

The FCS provides banking and secretariat services to the OSG. This includes receiving OSG annual membership fees and making payments on behalf of the OSG.

Contacts:

Name / Position / Mobile / Fixed / Email
Jacqui Brookes / CEO / 07850 208884 / 020 8249 6363 /
Michael Eagle / General Manager / 07841 370332 / 020 8249 6390 /
Christine Warwick / Administrator / 020 8249 6363 /
Louise Britchford / OSG accounts / 020 8249 6382 /

OSG Bank Account

The funds for the OSG are currently and temporarily managed by FCS using a nominee account.

Signatories to the account are:

• Jacqui Brookes
• Michael Eagle
• Christine Warwick

Funds held in the account come from annual OSG membership fees paid my OSG members.

These funds are used to meet the costs incurred by the OSG in relation to ensuring the effective delivery of the MNP Service.

The management and control of expenditure is specified in OSG-AC08-10r1 Revised Contractual and Payment Arrangements v4.

OSG Budget

The OSG financial year ends on the 31st of March each year. A forecast for the following financial year is compiled by the MNP Production Manager in advance of the end of each financial year for review by the OSG. Once input has been received on the budget, it is formally accepted and forms the basis of the calculation of the OSG membership fees for the following year. These fees are calculated by a predefined formula specified in the OSG constitution.

OSG Membership Fees

Executive and Participating members pay fees at two different levels corresponding to the seats on the OSG.

• Each of the 5 Executive members pays 1/7 of the budget
• Each of the 7 Participating member pays 1/8 of 2/7 the budget.

Note: Hitherto significant parts of the costs have been paid only by the Executive members and so the fees for the Participating members will rise as they start to bear their share of the full costs.

OSG Current Members

Executive Members:

Representative / Mobile / Fixed / Email
H3G / James Westby / 07782 325541 / 01628 765541 /
Kushal Sareen / 07782 325263 / 01628 76 5089 /
O2 / Richard Clarke / 07730 548123 /
Ian Hayhoe / 07734 985553 /
Orange / Sarah Hoyle / 07971 021791 /
Kirsty Ware / 07929 120107 /
T-Mobile / Gulistan Moledina / 07957 312703 /
Ruchita Desai / 0790 320 1947 / 01707 314010 /
Vodafone / Paul Carter / 07786 967501 /
Gary Loveday / 07920 288867 /

Please add fixed numbers if possible

Participating Members

Representative / Mobile / Fixed / Email
*BT / Shaun Moon / 07777 600021 /
*Mundio Mobile / Magnus Kelly / 07711590311 /
Cable and Wireless / Munawwar Hussain / 07822 892226 / 0121 629 5737 /
Hay Systems / Mark Hay / 07968 847040 /
Lyca Mobile / Amitabh Sharma / 0786 8866 392 / 020 7536 6450 - Ext 6572 /
OnePhone / Peter Scrope / 07836 200271 /
Truphone / James Body / 07978 800 001 / 020 3002 6565 /
Vectone / David Hill-Kelly / 020 7170 0400 /

* Denotes Delegated Representative who represents the Participating Members on the OSG

Contractual arrangements

OSG Chair

The OSG chair has a contract with FCS. FCS obtains the funding for payments to the OSG Chair from its contract with each of the members.

MNP Production Manager

The MNP Production Manager has a contract with FCS. FCS obtains the funding for payments to the OSG Chair from its contract with each of the members.

Syniverse

Syniverse is the provider of the MNP system. Presently each of the 5 incumbent MNOs is party to a 6-way agreement with Syniverse for the supply of the MNP system. This is paid for through the raising of 2 POs each year payable directly to Syniverse from each of the MNOs to cover their share of the support fees. These POs cover periods that end at the end of June and December each year. Participating Members access the system by signing a licensing agreement and payment to use the system is made on a per port basis. .

CR38 - Changes to allow Participating Members to be added to the Syniverse System

New Participating Members have to pay their share of the depreciated cost of CR38 which was originally £43k.

CR40 - Changes for 2 day porting

New Participating Members have to pay their share of the depreciated cost of CR38 which was originally £17.2k.

FCS

FCS has a contract with each of the Executive and Participating members and invoices them for the membership fees.

Web site

The website is run by the Chair and the Production Manager and is hosted by Catalyst2 (

VAT status

The OSG is not a legal entity and is not VAT registered. The accounts however are handled by FCS, which is VAT registered, and so fees will be paid with VAT from late 2009. Other more complex arrangements were used before then.

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