Telephone Numbers

About Assigning Telephone Numbers to Services

In UIM, you assign telephone numbers as configuration items in service configurations. Each time you make an assignment or unassignment, UIM creates a configuration version. See "Configurations" and UIM Help for more information about configurations.

Many regulatory jurisdictions require that you preserve a telephone number's assignment history for a prescribed number of years. Because UIM stores service configuration versions, you can maintain a history of telephone number assignments.

For example, when the number 214-555-5001 is assigned to a service for Mary Good on January 21, 2012, and unassigned on February 18, 2014, UIM stores both versions of the service configuration. If the number is assigned to Jim Smith on June 1, 2015, UIM stores that assignment as part of the service configuration.

By default, you cannot delete telephone numbers that were previously assigned to a service, even if the numbers are currently unassigned. You can change this default setting in the consumer.properties configuration file if necessary. See UIM System Administrator's Guide for information about changing this setting.

Managing Geographies and Specialized Numbers

Because telephone number formats and requirements vary significantly from country to country to location, you can use specifications to define telephone numbers for different geographies.

UIM includes base cartridges that define numbers for five countries:

United States (ora_uim_us_tn)
Canada (ora_uim_canada_tn)
Norway (ora_uim_norway_tn)
United Kingdom (ora_uim_uk_tn)
Saudi Arabia (ora_uim_saudi_arabia_tn)

Each cartridge includes a specification for individual telephone numbers and for telephone number blocks. The cartridges also include rulesets for formatting telephone numbers and telephone number blocks. See "Managing Telephone Number Blocks" and "About Telephone Number Formats" for more information.

For each country, the Telephone Number specification includes characteristics for:

The telephone number type. Valid values include Toll Free, Ported In, Ported Out, and Owned. The type can be left undefined.
The service provider that provides the telephone service.
The international dialing code, such as 47 for Norway and 1 for the US.

You can use these specifications as-is or modify them as necessary. You can also design specifications and rulesets in Design Studio for other geographies. You can also design specifications for special-purpose numbers, such as Centrex numbers.

See the UIM Cartridge Guide for information about the base cartridges. See Design Studio Help for information about designing specifications.

About Telephone Number Formats

Different geographies have different rules about the length of telephone numbers and how they are displayed. In UIM, you associate rulesets to Telephone Number specification to define formatting rules.

In UIM, the unformatted number is stored in the ID field of the Telephone Number entity and the formatted number is stored in the Phone Number field. For example, a US phone number might have the ID 6505553434 and be formatted as 650-555-3434.

Rulesets determine both the length of the number and how it is displayed. A base ruleset (TELEPHONE_NUMBER_FORMATTING) applies to specifications that do not have a custom ruleset. You can modify this ruleset to change the default behavior. By default, this ruleset defines telephone numbers as having 10 digits in XXX-XXX-XXXX format (North American standard).

You can also modify the TELEPHONE_NUMBER_FORMATTING ruleset to include formats that apply to particular specifications. For example, if you define a Telephone Number specification called NANPA for North American numbers, you can add code to the ruleset to define the number length as 11 digits, formatted as +X (XXX) XXX-XXXX.

Another way to define number formatting for individual specifications is to create separate rulesets for each specification. Each of the country-specific Telephone Number specifications provided in the UIM base cartridges has two accompanying rulesets: one that governs telephone number formatting and one that covers telephone number block formatting. For example, the specification for Saudi Arabian telephone numbers is associated with the following two rulesets:

TELEPHONE_NUMBER_FORMATTING_SATN
TELEPHONE_NUMBER_BLOCK_FORMATTING_SATN

All of the number formatting rulesets work the same way. You specify an edit mask using appropriate formatting and hash symbols (#) as placeholders for numbers. For example, ###-###-#### represents the standard North American format. +1 ###-###-#### represents that format with the US international calling code included.

Two aspects of telephone number formatting are governed by system configuration files:

The formatting of telephone numbers when neither the base ruleset nor a custom ruleset is associated with a Telephone Number specification. You specify the default edit mask (using the same syntax described above for rulesets) in the number.properties file.
Whether zeroes are allowed at the beginning of telephone numbers. By default, leading zeroes are stripped during validation, but you can change the setting to allow them. Some countries, such as South Africa, use leading zeroes as an integral part of telephone numbers. You set this option in the system-config.properties file.

See UIM System Administrator's Guide for information about modifying these configuration files.

Managing Telephone Number Blocks

Telephone numbers are often created and managed as blocks or groups. For example, service providers frequently:

Receive telephone number blocks from regulatory agency
Distribute telephone number blocks to other providers
Release telephone number blocks for assignment purposes
Assign telephone number blocks to geographic areas

In UIM, you define telephone number blocks using telephone number specifications, and associate them with rulesets that define the block number formatting.

UIM provides base specifications for telephone number blocks and formatting rulesets for five supported countries mentioned in the previous section. The number format is defined along the same lines as the corresponding individual number specification, with some number of digits missing at the end. The number of missing digits defines the size of the block.

For example, suppose that the standard telephone number format is 10 digits formatted as XX-YYYY-ZZZZ. You could define a telephone number block specification and ruleset that specifies the format as XX-YYYY. This format implies a block size of 10,000, corresponding to the telephone number XX-YYYY-0000 through XX-YYYY-9999.

In UIM, Telephone Number entities based on a telephone number block specification such as this, do not represent the individual numbers that can be assigned to services. Rather, they represents a group of numbers that you manage as a whole. For example, you can add a condition to a block and then perform business logic based on that condition.

The UIM base telephone number block specifications also include characteristics that enable you to manage blocks more efficiently. Table 20-1 lists these characteristics.

Table 20-1 Block-Related Characteristics

Specification	Description
Block Availability	Indicates whether a particular telephone number block is available for assignment
Block Availability Date	Identifies the date after which a particular telephone number block will be available for assignment
Block Indicator	Identifies a telephone number block

You can design business logic based on the values of these fields. For example, you could create a ruleset associated with a telephone number block specification (Block Indicator is checked) that creates individual telephone number entities when the Block Availability date is reached. So when block 66 665 becomes available, a ruleset triggers the creation of telephone numbers 66 665-0000 to 66 665-9999.

When you create or use Telephone Number block specifications, you should consider the following questions:

Are blocks of telephone numbers designated for specific services?
Are blocks designated for specific geographic locations?
Do you have wholesale arrangements with other providers for telephone number blocks?
Are there specific regulatory requirements around block management?

Telephone Number Aging

Telephone numbers are subject to an aging process. Numbers previously assigned to one service cannot be assigned to another service for a period of time. The rules for aging are define by regulators and vary from country to country. For example, in the United States, numbers that were assigned to a business or governmental agency are required to age for at least 360 days. Numbers assigned to individuals are generally aged for 90 days.

The UIM life cycle for telephone numbers includes an aging process that defines status in addition to the standard resource statuses. Numbers that move into Disconnected status are moved by the aging process into Transitional status. where they remain until they can be reassigned. See "Telephone Number Assignment Life Cycle and Statuses" for more information.

You use configuration files to specify various aspects of the aging process:

The interval at which the timer process checks the assignment status of telephone numbers in Disconnected or Transitional status. The default value is 600 seconds. You can modify this value in the timers.properties configuration file.
The number of days a telephone number stays in Disconnected status before moving to Transitional status. The default value is 30 days. You can modify this value in the consumer.properties configuration file.
The number of days a telephone number stays in Transitional status before moving to Unassigned status (and therefore exiting the aging process). The default value is 30 days. You can modify this value in the consumer.properties configuration file.

See UIM System Administrator's Guide for more information on the configuration property files.

Organizing Telephone Numbers

In UIM, you use inventory groups to organize telephone numbers. You can create any number of inventory groups to organize numbers in any way that makes sense for your business. Numbers can be grouped by geographic locations such as cities, counties, or zip codes; by Service specifications, such as Mobile Service or Consumer VoIP service; or by logical device, such as voice server or a Class 5 switch.

A common way to organize numbers is by service area. You can create an inventory group for each service area. You associate a place, such as a postal code, with each inventory group to define it's geographic location. You then include telephone numbers and telephone number blocks as items in the inventory groups.

You can define rulesets that find numbers for assignment by comparing the postal code on an incoming service request with postal codes associated with inventory groups. For example, if a service request comes from the UK postal code E19 C4U, a ruleset can find the appropriate inventory group and select a number from its items.

See "Inventory Groups" and UIM Help for more information about inventory groups.

Telephone Number Portability

UIM includes features that enable you to manage telephone number portability, including porting in and porting out. You must deploy the Base Phone Management cartridge to use these features. See the UIM Cartridge Guide for information about this base cartridge and about deploying cartridges in general.

The Base Phone Management cartridge includes a set of characteristics related to number portability. Table 20-2 lists and describes these characteristics.

Table 20-2 Phone Management Characteristics

Specification	Description
TN Country Code	Identifies the originating country of a mobile telephone number
TN Type	Indicates the type of telephone number: toll free, owned, ported in, or ported out
Winback	Identifies that a mobile telephone number has been provisioned as a Winback

The TN Type value help to define how a telephone number is handled by UIM:

Owned: Telephone numbers owned by a service provider.
Ported in: Telephone numbers owned by a different service provider but used by a customer after subscribing to the current service provider.
Ported out: Telephone numbers owned by the original service provider but used by a customer after subscribing to a different service provider.
Toll free: Telephone numbers for which the service provider, instead of the customer, pays for the usage charges.

The type assigned to a telephone number can affect its life cycle. For example, when a telephone number is ported out, its TN Type value is changed from Owned to Ported Out, its resource assignment status is set to Ported, and its inventory status is set to Unavailable. When the customer gives up the ported-out number, it's TN Type is returned to Owned, its assignment status is set to Unassigned, and its inventory status remains Unavailable. The telephone number becomes available again after it is activated. See "Telephone Number Assignment Life Cycle and Statuses" for more information.

A number of entries in the consumer.properties configuration file control various aspects of the telephone number portability and aging process, including which characteristic UIM uses to trigger number portability logic. See the UIM System Administrator's Guide for a list of these entries.

Reserving and Redeeming Telephone Numbers

Telephone number management often involves the use of reservations. Telephone numbers are usually provided to subscribers when they order service. Numbers are reserved at this time, even though the service has not yet been created.

Using reservations prevents duplication of telephone number assignments. Because multiple customer service representatives (CSRs) can launch number requests at the same time, it is necessary to reserve numbers to lock them from multiple queries and multiple selections for different subscribers.

For example, if a CSR launches a query for a telephone number for Suzy Quentin, the query could return 214-555-1234. To protect it from another CSR query, the number is placed on a short-term reservation. This reservation is redeemed when the service for Suzy Quentin is created.

You use the standard UIM reservation framework for this purpose. Reservations can be short-term or long-term. You define the time periods for short- and long-term reservations based on your business practices.

UIM monitors reservations to determine if their terms have expired. When reservations, expire telephone numbers become available for further assignment. UIM can be configured to require that a tag be supplied to identify the appropriate customer or sales order before a telephone number reservation can be redeemed.

See "Resource Reservations" and UIM Help for more information about reservations.

Telephone Number Reporting

Reports are an important tool in managing telephone numbers. UIM uses Business Intelligence Publisher (BI Publisher) as its standard reporting tool. UIM includes a number of sample reports related to telephone number management:

Utilization report by 1K block
Utilization report by 10K block
Utilization report for 1K/10K block by category
Utilization report by category for toll-free numbers

You can modify the sample reports and create new ones to display the information you need. See UIM System Administrator's Guide for more information.