July 15, 1998

Dear NPA 847 Code Holder:

The Number Pooling Subcommittee of the Illinois Number Portability Workshop seeks your assistance in completing its initial report to the Illinois Commerce Commission on the results of the 847 Number Pooling Trial. Earlier this year, our subcommittee had identified eight criteria items to be assessed during this trial. They are detailed in a document entitled "Expectations for a Number Pooling Trial in the Illinois 847 Area Code", which is available on the www.ported.com website. Our first report is intended to address as many of these criteria items as possible, acknowledging however, that the trial is still in its infancy and there may be little to report on some items.

Your assistance is sought in obtaining anecdotal information regarding three criteria. Specifically, we are seeking information on your company's experience in interfacing with the Pooling Administrator and its website, impacts of pooling on your (internal) provisioning and support systems (e.g., OSS), and adequacy/use of the Number Pooling Guidelines. Further detail regarding each is shown below. If your company has not yet had a need to browse or use any of the Pool's resources, that feedback would be helpful as well.

In order to meet our July 31st deadline, we need your responses by July 23rd. You may forward them to me by either fax (847-248-3977) or e-mail (brian.baldwin@ameritech. com).

Sincerely,

Pooling Subcommittee Co-Chair

Information is sought on the Pooling Administrator's discharge of its responsibilities, which include:

• Monitoring and replenishing the pooling resource
• Processing requests for block assignments
• Verifying the eligibility of the applicant
• Determining the level of contamination of pooled blocks
• Provisioning of an industry data base that is secure yet accessible to all qualified service providers
• Requesting and processing forecasts of demand from each service provider
• Preparing and publishing reports as needed and required
• Conducting audits of carrier forecasts and utilization

Information is sought on the efficiency and compatibility of service providers' ordering, provisioning and billing systems (e.g., OSS) with number pooling. Service providers may elect to provide information regarding needed enhancements to those systems to support the Trial. Specific systems that service providers may elect to report on include those which support:

• Forecasting
• Number Inventory
• Number Assignment
• NPAC Transaction Notification
• NPAC Broadcast Management
• Test and Repair
• Rating and Billing

Information is sought on whether the number pooling administration guidelines developed in Illinois for the Trial sufficiently address all situations encountered during the Trial period. Such situations may include:

• A mix of LNP and non-LNP capable service providers
• Differing capabilities or willingness of some service providers to accept specific block allocations
• A mix of new entrants with existing service providers
• Differing levels of block demand among service providers
• Requests for specific block assignments
• High levels of demand in certain rate centers
• Use of both contaminated and clean blocks within the pool