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Value-Added Services

Value-added services are defined as those that alter the form, content, or nature of the information, thereby adding value to it. Examples include store-and-forward services such as voice mail, email and fax mail. In the data world, networks that accomplish the process of protocol conversion are considered as providing value-added services. Value-added services increasingly are offered by carriers of substance.

Portability

Portability of numbers is an issue of real significance, and increasingly so. Traditionally, all numbers have been associated with either a geographic area (e.g., NPA and exchange code), a carrier (e.g., 800 and 500 numbers) or a service offering such as DID. Given the fact that users prefer to retain the same number (logical address), regardless of physical location, carrier or service offering, there is a movement to satisfy that desire. The intensity of the issue is increased through the development of competitive alternatives, not only for IXC services, but also for local loop service.

In the United States, 800/888 numbers have been portable across carriers since 1992, although they are restricted by LATA boundary. In other words, and for the most part, only LECs can offer intraLATA 800 services. Similarly, only IXCs can offer interLATA 800 services. Such restrictions will be lifted in the near future, as the LECs satisfy the requisite conditions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Outside the United States, portability is a most unusual exception to the rule.

Portability of local numbers is viewed as an issue of increasing significance, especially given plans for local service competition under the provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In order to accomplish such a level or portability, even within a given geographic area, substantial investments must be made in the necessary centralized intelligence and database technology, much as was the case with 800 services. It currently is unclear how such an investment will be funded. Currently, telephone number changes are required if a user shifts local service allegiance from the LEC to a CAP. This fact should not be surprising, as the NANP is locally administered by the largest BOC, which has a less than compelling incentive to be flexible in that regard. As a footnote, 500 numbers and 900 numbers (which are not geographically specific) currently are not portable across carriers, although the FCC has determined that such portability would be in the public interest [6-1], [6-21], and [6-22].

The ultimate in portability is the concept of Personal Communications Services (PCS), which will be discussed in Chapter 12. PCS involves inexpensive wireless phones which will offer two-way access anywhere, anytime for voice, data, video and image communications. PCS, at least theoretically, will allow an individual to hold a number (logical address) for life. That number will serve many devices (voice telephones, fax machines, and computer modems), with the caller being prompted to make the appropriate selections and with the called party controlling options for the restriction of such privileges. While in the early stages of development and deployment, PCS likely will have great impact early in the next century.

Equal Access: Another Special Issue

Equal access is intended to ensure that the end user can access any IXC with equal ease. In other words, a user can dial a long distance call from a residence or business simply by dialing the telephone number, without a requirement for dialing special access codes. Equal access is intended to facilitate a competitive environment through removing unnecessary technical barriers. Prior to its implementation in the United States, access to an IXC other than AT&T required dialing an access number to the carrier, an authorization code and the target telephone number. This requirement clearly placed other carriers at a competitive disadvantage.

The implementation of equal access requires that users in a specific geographic area be surveyed and afforded the right to choose a carrier on the basis of pre-selection. Users not responding are assigned a default carrier with such defaults being selected randomly and spread across the available carriers based on their respective market penetration. All user choices or default selections are noted in a centralized database residing on a database server, which is queried as each call is placed. Based on the ID of the originating circuit, the database is consulted and the call is connected through the designated IXC carrier. This same process can apply equally to all outgoing calls, regardless of distance (i.e., local, intraLATA, interLATA and international), subject to regulatory approval and deployment of the technology.

Alternatively, the user can access the carrier through dialing an access number (10XXX). Such a technique would be used in order to place a call through another carrier in the event of a failure or blockage of the network of the primary carrier.

Access charges are intended to compensate the LEC for the costs of connecting the call across expensive local loop facilities, conducting the pre-selection survey, investing in the database server and administering the equal access database. While the structure of access charges varies from country to country, they include some combination of Subscriber Line Charges (SLC) and Carrier Access Charges.


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