How does the transfer of a cell phone number to another operator work: FAQ and development experience
Let's start with the fact that now every mobile number in our country has become significantly longer and begins, for example, on the D7799 . D is that this 15-digit number cannot be dialed from a regular mobile phone. Then the region code (77), then the operator code (99).
CDB - a common database of Russian operators
When MNP (number portability) was just being introduced, the last three weeks were simply enchanting. Why? Just around the world, such a procedure is being implemented on average over 2 years, while in Russia it was only 5 months.
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There are 4 different transfer processes that differ in terms and conditions and times. All of them imply that the subscriber comes to the operator-recipient (for whom he wants to be serviced) and writes an application for transfer with indication of when he wants to switch. We can still make an application from the site from a personal account for both individuals and legal entities so as not to fill out papers in the office. There is a courier who brings everything together with SIM-cards.
Immediately after the application, we give a temporary SIM card (not all operators do this). During the first part of the transfer, the numbers on it are simply some random number from the number available from the number capacity, and after transferring your number to our number capacity, we simply rewrite the number on this SIM remotely. And the subscriber can easily call his old number without another trip to our office.
After you have written the application, we turn to the central database through which all operators communicate. Communication goes like this:
- Base, we are the only ones who are doing the transfer of numbers?
- Yes, there are no two simultaneous processes.
- Base, and the new number and the old number in one subject of the Federation?
- Yes, zonal addressing is the same.
- Base, and the subscriber has no debt to the old operator at the time of application?
- No, everything is clean, you can connect.
- Base, purely just in case: and the number of exactly this operator, from which we are going to transfer?
- Do not worry you, let's carry.
This is how it looks for the subscriber.
Having passed all possible status checks, the application gets validation to the donor operator (we call it "mother" in the jargon). Now the “big three” operations of checking individuals are performed automatically, which saves time. Checked name and passport data. In our experience, approximately 30% of applications are eliminated at this stage.
If the validation of the questionnaire was successful, a pause for 2 days is made, the current debt is determined. If it is, it is given another 3 days to pay it off, for which it is said 2 times to the subscriber that he has not paid. Did not repay - the application is rejected. There is no debt - confirmed the date of transfer. Another 2 days have the opportunity to abandon this transfer, then it will not be possible.
A day before the transfer, the subscriber receives an SMS with instructions that you need to remember to change the SIM card and so on, while he can still receive them, because then the connection will be interrupted.
During the procedure, you can vividly follow the process. We have it like this:
• * 444 * 1 # - this is the command for the status of your application.
• In the personal account of the temporary number - the status of the application and the course of all procedures for it.
• For each important event - SMS with an explanation of what it means.
• There are 8-800-700-4004 where you can call for the status of the application.
It begins, in fact, the transfer. Interruption of communication is allowed for 6 hours by law. We have this: if all the systems (ours and other operators) are working properly, the subscriber is not available for about 20 minutes. More precisely, so (the timing for us, other operators will be different):
• Outbound communication connects almost immediately.
• Incoming “Beeline” - 15–20 minutes.
• Incoming from the donor operator - within an hour, usually also 15–20 minutes.
• Incoming from the rest of the country's cellular operators - about 2 more hours.
• Incoming from fixed operators - about the same, for rare regional operators - a little longer.
At the moment X, when the transfer begins, a new number is written to the SIM-card, it is also updated in the billing. I must say that only IMSI (international mobile subscriber ID) is on the SIM card. Your IMSI is assigned a new Russian subscriber number.
In order to be able to determine the new routing, we had to change the whole addressing scheme in Russia. As I said, now the numbers inside the routing systems are written in a 15-digit format, starting with something like D7799. This means that the ownership of the number is now determined not by the first numbers, like 903, as it was when the specific numbering capacity was assigned to the operator, but by the region prefix and the operator in this 15-digit "route" number. Well, also by the “where to route” parameter, which may also be in the database (or it may not be). This is important for customers of virtual operators.
Information about the transferred number is received by payment systems and they begin to correctly route payments. Not everyone does it at the same speed, so frequent calls on the first day after the transfer are “When will my payment reach?”.
The first day is better to put directly through the new operator. It is optimal to pay with a card from the site of a new operator or in the operator’s cabin by hand.
There are cases when the subscriber begins to complain about the lack of communication in some areas. That is characteristic - entering. And, of course, believes that the new operator is to blame.
In fact, everything is easier. The fact is that with proper routing through a normal route, the call goes directly from the caller's operator to the caller's operator without additional loops. If suddenly the switch of the operator of the calling subscriber decides that it is necessary to give the call to the "mother", then the "mother" (as the original owner of the container) is obliged to route through herself. For the money, by the way, which encourages many small operators to correctly prescribe routes at once. And of course, a regular problem arises: the subscriber goes to us, he does not have incoming intercommunication and part of the fixes. "Nurse" could not correctly forward the call to the routing node - and hang up. This is due to inaccurate implementation of the specification on the nodes of the calling operator and, sometimes - with the routing bugs of the "mother".
Today, several thousand subscribers are being transferred per day, and only 1-2 may encounter such problems. For the first 10 or so days after the start of the transfer, we rolled out software releases every day, correcting both our mistakes and achieving compatibility with the releases of our colleagues. We had to update 25 subsystems. It was decided this way: we immediately decided not to rewrite our standard CRM, but to make separate decisions that worked in the gap between the incoming data and the rest of the “internal kitchen”, and were responsible for the conversion of numbers. A kind of universal connectors.
The number of subscriber transitions from operator to operator is open data. On average, we have, from the very beginning, a constant and large influx of legal entities, in the last month - a stable plus for individual subscribers. At the beginning of MNP, we had a clear inflow in the south of the Russian Federation and fluctuations back and forth in a number of regions, later the delta began to decrease, and now we are in a stable plus on the subscriber base every day.
For individuals the term is 9 days. For legal entities the period is 29 days, in particular, because manual verification of documents is necessarily done. For them, also an extended payment period, you can pay off the debt for weeks. You can specify any number of numbers in the application, for example, only half of the corporate of the entire contract with the old operator. Each number is transferred individually - at the finale, the statement crumbles into lines.
For small legal entities with 5 or less rooms, this is also 9 days.
For the B2G market (state-owned companies) - 9 days, but there is no check of debts. The contract is checked when the competition is completed, it is checked that the applicant has won the competition.
There is also an emergency return number procedure. For example, the subscriber changed his mind in due time, carried the application to the office at 21:59, but did not have time to add it to the database. In general, during the day you can return the number back, if there is a strong justification for the technical part. For example, one large plant passed from us, which suddenly changed its mind and wrote a disclaimer. The operator where he went, delayed the registration of the application, and the numbers have changed. Employees at this point have already thrown out the SIMs of the failed new operator. And the next day after consideration of the claim, an emergency refund was made.
The length of the process with all steps in Visio is 250 centimeters. We started with 4 steps, and then began to register exceptions.
For example, the “operator-nurse” has the right after 45 days to say that the subscriber owes him money. First, a couple of rubles can run up after the last debt check. Secondly, there are a lot of details on the postpaid, and the bill can arrive in a month or two. Thirdly, late data for roaming can only arrive. At this point, the subscriber has 10 days to reach the old operator and pay off the debt (it’s impossible to get through regular machines - the routes are already new). Further, if it does not extinguish, a lock is put through the central base (this is an indispensable condition of the standard). On the day, so dozens of rooms are blocked.
One more. Since at the moment X from the number capacity of the "nurse" the number went into our number capacity, at the time of the end of the contract you need to return the number to the base. Specifically, when the subscriber decides to complete the contract, the number is returned. Now about 50-100 such returns per day.
- Why is it impossible to transfer a number from one geographic area to another?
Because in Russia the system of routing by zones is used. Refusal of such a system means the restructuring of the architecture of almost all fixed operators. But even if it will be technically possible to register a new routing in this way, legislative changes are needed - the numbering capacity is now being issued to the subject of the Federation.
- My girlfriend has free calls to Beeline, can she call for a new number for free?
Yes, when you switch to us, the new number will be considered “our”, and calls to it will be free. However, there is a nuance: when the “mother” or the recipient is an MVNO without MNC, then a special exception table should be made. Do it not all, or it is updated from some operators manually. This means, for example, that for a number of small regional operators the number may be “nobody's”, and you will not be able to use your bonus for calling.
- And how to find out whose number then?
We have a USSD command: * 444 * NUMBER #, for example, 444 * 9031111111 #. In response, a message comes in with what kind of operator (Beeline or not) and what region (if it is different). Other operators have similar means (on a call to an IVR or a request via SMS or USSD), which should, according to the standard, give at least the operator. It is not necessary to give the region, but we do.
- What should be checked before transfer?
- Why were there so many mistakes in the first time after entering MNP?
Colleagues will understand: we worked 15-17 hours a day then because of very tight deadlines according to specifications. Plus, of course, few people outside the "big three" actually documented their technical processes in detail. As a result, for the first 4–5 months we caught bugs. It was not possible to test: all other operators entered the production immediately, so the first 10 days (and about three or four hundred first subscribers) were actually beta testers. There were difficulties with encryption: each operator encrypts on his side. Adjustment of the interaction was about a month. Now we and other large operators are more or less debugged and automated, but out of two or three thousand subscribers, one will still go wrong. We will understand our colleagues, we will document, we will roll out a new patch.
- When do they take 100 rubles for transfer?
The transfer of the number is taken in the amount specified in the standard - 100 rubles. We write it off only when the transfer is completed successfully, some other operators take it upon the application. This is important, because from half to a third of applications is rejected, and these 100 rubles are not returned.
CDB - a common database of Russian operators
When MNP (number portability) was just being introduced, the last three weeks were simply enchanting. Why? Just around the world, such a procedure is being implemented on average over 2 years, while in Russia it was only 5 months.
')
Normal number transfer process
There are 4 different transfer processes that differ in terms and conditions and times. All of them imply that the subscriber comes to the operator-recipient (for whom he wants to be serviced) and writes an application for transfer with indication of when he wants to switch. We can still make an application from the site from a personal account for both individuals and legal entities so as not to fill out papers in the office. There is a courier who brings everything together with SIM-cards.
Immediately after the application, we give a temporary SIM card (not all operators do this). During the first part of the transfer, the numbers on it are simply some random number from the number available from the number capacity, and after transferring your number to our number capacity, we simply rewrite the number on this SIM remotely. And the subscriber can easily call his old number without another trip to our office.
After you have written the application, we turn to the central database through which all operators communicate. Communication goes like this:
- Base, we are the only ones who are doing the transfer of numbers?
- Yes, there are no two simultaneous processes.
- Base, and the new number and the old number in one subject of the Federation?
- Yes, zonal addressing is the same.
- Base, and the subscriber has no debt to the old operator at the time of application?
- No, everything is clean, you can connect.
- Base, purely just in case: and the number of exactly this operator, from which we are going to transfer?
- Do not worry you, let's carry.
This is how it looks for the subscriber.
Having passed all possible status checks, the application gets validation to the donor operator (we call it "mother" in the jargon). Now the “big three” operations of checking individuals are performed automatically, which saves time. Checked name and passport data. In our experience, approximately 30% of applications are eliminated at this stage.
If the validation of the questionnaire was successful, a pause for 2 days is made, the current debt is determined. If it is, it is given another 3 days to pay it off, for which it is said 2 times to the subscriber that he has not paid. Did not repay - the application is rejected. There is no debt - confirmed the date of transfer. Another 2 days have the opportunity to abandon this transfer, then it will not be possible.
A day before the transfer, the subscriber receives an SMS with instructions that you need to remember to change the SIM card and so on, while he can still receive them, because then the connection will be interrupted.
During the procedure, you can vividly follow the process. We have it like this:
• * 444 * 1 # - this is the command for the status of your application.
• In the personal account of the temporary number - the status of the application and the course of all procedures for it.
• For each important event - SMS with an explanation of what it means.
• There are 8-800-700-4004 where you can call for the status of the application.
Point x
It begins, in fact, the transfer. Interruption of communication is allowed for 6 hours by law. We have this: if all the systems (ours and other operators) are working properly, the subscriber is not available for about 20 minutes. More precisely, so (the timing for us, other operators will be different):
• Outbound communication connects almost immediately.
• Incoming “Beeline” - 15–20 minutes.
• Incoming from the donor operator - within an hour, usually also 15–20 minutes.
• Incoming from the rest of the country's cellular operators - about 2 more hours.
• Incoming from fixed operators - about the same, for rare regional operators - a little longer.
At the moment X, when the transfer begins, a new number is written to the SIM-card, it is also updated in the billing. I must say that only IMSI (international mobile subscriber ID) is on the SIM card. Your IMSI is assigned a new Russian subscriber number.
In order to be able to determine the new routing, we had to change the whole addressing scheme in Russia. As I said, now the numbers inside the routing systems are written in a 15-digit format, starting with something like D7799. This means that the ownership of the number is now determined not by the first numbers, like 903, as it was when the specific numbering capacity was assigned to the operator, but by the region prefix and the operator in this 15-digit "route" number. Well, also by the “where to route” parameter, which may also be in the database (or it may not be). This is important for customers of virtual operators.
After x
Information about the transferred number is received by payment systems and they begin to correctly route payments. Not everyone does it at the same speed, so frequent calls on the first day after the transfer are “When will my payment reach?”.
The first day is better to put directly through the new operator. It is optimal to pay with a card from the site of a new operator or in the operator’s cabin by hand.
There are cases when the subscriber begins to complain about the lack of communication in some areas. That is characteristic - entering. And, of course, believes that the new operator is to blame.
In fact, everything is easier. The fact is that with proper routing through a normal route, the call goes directly from the caller's operator to the caller's operator without additional loops. If suddenly the switch of the operator of the calling subscriber decides that it is necessary to give the call to the "mother", then the "mother" (as the original owner of the container) is obliged to route through herself. For the money, by the way, which encourages many small operators to correctly prescribe routes at once. And of course, a regular problem arises: the subscriber goes to us, he does not have incoming intercommunication and part of the fixes. "Nurse" could not correctly forward the call to the routing node - and hang up. This is due to inaccurate implementation of the specification on the nodes of the calling operator and, sometimes - with the routing bugs of the "mother".
Today, several thousand subscribers are being transferred per day, and only 1-2 may encounter such problems. For the first 10 or so days after the start of the transfer, we rolled out software releases every day, correcting both our mistakes and achieving compatibility with the releases of our colleagues. We had to update 25 subsystems. It was decided this way: we immediately decided not to rewrite our standard CRM, but to make separate decisions that worked in the gap between the incoming data and the rest of the “internal kitchen”, and were responsible for the conversion of numbers. A kind of universal connectors.
Number of transfers
The number of subscriber transitions from operator to operator is open data. On average, we have, from the very beginning, a constant and large influx of legal entities, in the last month - a stable plus for individual subscribers. At the beginning of MNP, we had a clear inflow in the south of the Russian Federation and fluctuations back and forth in a number of regions, later the delta began to decrease, and now we are in a stable plus on the subscriber base every day.
Other transfer procedures
For individuals the term is 9 days. For legal entities the period is 29 days, in particular, because manual verification of documents is necessarily done. For them, also an extended payment period, you can pay off the debt for weeks. You can specify any number of numbers in the application, for example, only half of the corporate of the entire contract with the old operator. Each number is transferred individually - at the finale, the statement crumbles into lines.
For small legal entities with 5 or less rooms, this is also 9 days.
For the B2G market (state-owned companies) - 9 days, but there is no check of debts. The contract is checked when the competition is completed, it is checked that the applicant has won the competition.
There is also an emergency return number procedure. For example, the subscriber changed his mind in due time, carried the application to the office at 21:59, but did not have time to add it to the database. In general, during the day you can return the number back, if there is a strong justification for the technical part. For example, one large plant passed from us, which suddenly changed its mind and wrote a disclaimer. The operator where he went, delayed the registration of the application, and the numbers have changed. Employees at this point have already thrown out the SIMs of the failed new operator. And the next day after consideration of the claim, an emergency refund was made.
Increase your process: 10 times in 25 centimeters
The length of the process with all steps in Visio is 250 centimeters. We started with 4 steps, and then began to register exceptions.
For example, the “operator-nurse” has the right after 45 days to say that the subscriber owes him money. First, a couple of rubles can run up after the last debt check. Secondly, there are a lot of details on the postpaid, and the bill can arrive in a month or two. Thirdly, late data for roaming can only arrive. At this point, the subscriber has 10 days to reach the old operator and pay off the debt (it’s impossible to get through regular machines - the routes are already new). Further, if it does not extinguish, a lock is put through the central base (this is an indispensable condition of the standard). On the day, so dozens of rooms are blocked.
One more. Since at the moment X from the number capacity of the "nurse" the number went into our number capacity, at the time of the end of the contract you need to return the number to the base. Specifically, when the subscriber decides to complete the contract, the number is returned. Now about 50-100 such returns per day.
FAQ
- Why is it impossible to transfer a number from one geographic area to another?
Because in Russia the system of routing by zones is used. Refusal of such a system means the restructuring of the architecture of almost all fixed operators. But even if it will be technically possible to register a new routing in this way, legislative changes are needed - the numbering capacity is now being issued to the subject of the Federation.
- My girlfriend has free calls to Beeline, can she call for a new number for free?
Yes, when you switch to us, the new number will be considered “our”, and calls to it will be free. However, there is a nuance: when the “mother” or the recipient is an MVNO without MNC, then a special exception table should be made. Do it not all, or it is updated from some operators manually. This means, for example, that for a number of small regional operators the number may be “nobody's”, and you will not be able to use your bonus for calling.
- And how to find out whose number then?
We have a USSD command: * 444 * NUMBER #, for example, 444 * 9031111111 #. In response, a message comes in with what kind of operator (Beeline or not) and what region (if it is different). Other operators have similar means (on a call to an IVR or a request via SMS or USSD), which should, according to the standard, give at least the operator. It is not necessary to give the region, but we do.
- What should be checked before transfer?
- Make sure that the "operator-nurse" your full name and passport data recorded without errors.
- Check through the office of the "operator-nurse" or his call center that there are no debts of 2 kopecks on all old contracts. You will surely remember Simka, which you bought in another city 10 years ago and thrown out at the station, - pay the ruble to the cashier, or the “mother” will reject the application.
- If you go to a small regional operator or a virtual operator, please note that there can be a lot of handwriting. You may not have a connection not 20 minutes, but a little more, plus there will be difficulties with billing and paying for the first days.
- If your phone is the only Internet access, pre-record the number of the call center of the new operator - it will be useful. All short numbering is routing within your carrier’s network. For example, we have made aliases for “alien” short support numbers in our country, but not all of them do this.
- Why were there so many mistakes in the first time after entering MNP?
Colleagues will understand: we worked 15-17 hours a day then because of very tight deadlines according to specifications. Plus, of course, few people outside the "big three" actually documented their technical processes in detail. As a result, for the first 4–5 months we caught bugs. It was not possible to test: all other operators entered the production immediately, so the first 10 days (and about three or four hundred first subscribers) were actually beta testers. There were difficulties with encryption: each operator encrypts on his side. Adjustment of the interaction was about a month. Now we and other large operators are more or less debugged and automated, but out of two or three thousand subscribers, one will still go wrong. We will understand our colleagues, we will document, we will roll out a new patch.
- When do they take 100 rubles for transfer?
The transfer of the number is taken in the amount specified in the standard - 100 rubles. We write it off only when the transfer is completed successfully, some other operators take it upon the application. This is important, because from half to a third of applications is rejected, and these 100 rubles are not returned.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/244595/
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