The following are the highlights of the Illinois LNP Steering

Committee meeting held on Thursday, November 20, 1997.

Notes Overview:

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1. Subcommittee Reports

2. St. Louis MSA

3. Regulatory Update

Highlights:

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** NPAC sub-committee is near completion of number pooling

requirements (pre-porting and snapback). Requirements are on

www.ported.com website.

** RFP for interim number pooling administrator is out.

1) Subcommittee Reports

a) Cost Recovery -

The FCC may release a cost recovery decision in December;

however, it is believed that this decision will cover only 20% of the

issue. The remaining 80% will be handed back to the States.

Until a cost recovery mechanism is finalized (from either the ICC

or FCC), Ameritech stated that they will not allow any subscribers

to port.

b) NPAC Update -

Testing is now complete and it appears that the NPAC is ready. A

plan is in place to improve its performance. Initial pooling

requirements have been completed and include:

- pre-porting

- snap back to block holder.

There was no push back from any of the Chicago Service providers

on these issues.

The NPAC will have a special release for pooling, which will come

out before rel. 2.0. This special release won't be ready until at

least May 15th with the mechanized part ready by June. In order

to meet the May 15th timeline, requirements must be finalized by

January 15,

As of Nov. 20th, there have been 0 ports in the mid-Atlantic

region.

c) Number Pooling

Issue: Cost Recovery - Who handles it?

Resolution - Interim mechanisms to be reviewed by subcommittee

RFP

12/2 - Questions due

12/5 - Number administration conference call

New test start target date of 4/1/98.

d) LLC -

Contract for Lockheed Martin approved.

1/1/98 interim cost allocation mechanism approved.

Pricing of Release 2.0 to be discussed at 1p meeting.

e) Operator Services -

Nothing new to report.

f) Rating and Billing -

Nothing new to report.

g) LNP SCP -

The subcommittee supports the following positions for number

pooling:

- pre-porting

- explicit range capability

T1S1 will be taking over national issues for porting, but not pooling.

g) LNP SSP -

The vendors were asked in the Oct. 23rd meeting to respond to

whether they would require an LRN per rate center. The responses

are outlined below:

Ericsson - No.

Nortel - No (with patch not yet available).

Siemens - Yes.

Lucent - No for the 5E and 4E, Yes for the 1A.

AGCS - No response. Sam Mehta will check.

This issue is only a problem when separate EAS routes are needed. This is not a problem in Chicago.

h) Phase II -

NANC has released new documentation, some of which contain

phase II requirements for switches.

i) Test Team -

Nothing new to report.

j) Operations -

The subcommittee reviewed and agrees with the NPAC

operations flows for number pooling (on www.ported.com).

However, the sub-committee identified some changes to current

processes (i.e. how to open NPA-NXXs, disconnects) that will have

to be made to handle number pooling. For example, currently when

an NXX is opened, it will be made LNP capable when a number is

actually ported. However, with number pooling, the instant a

thousands group is opened the entire NPA-NXX is opened even if

nobody has ported. These process impacts will only be for the 847

area code (847 is the only area code that will have number pooling).

It was mentioned that some vendors have problems with rel. 26

and 'unallocated' treatment. The issue revolves around a number

that is unallocated but assigned. This has an impact on both

number porting and pooling.

Ameritech stated that they will work with competitors (for the

time being) when a mass calling number is ported.

NexLink will soon be entering the Chicago market.

k) 911 Subcommittee -

Ameritech described a meeting with law enforcement agencies

to discuss IVR issues for the agencies and 911 providers. The law enforcement agencies believe that IVR will initially meet their needs, but they want more(i.e. want a single giant national database). Overall the law enforcement agencies were satisfied with IVR; however, they are

not willing to pay for IVR as they believe that it fixes something

that was broken by the service providers, not themselves. IVR will

be ready by March if LLC approves.

l) Number Pooling -

An RFP has been issued for an interim number pooling

administrator (a copy of the RFP is available on www.ported.com).

Currently 4 parties have expressed interest. The carrier members

of the number pooling sub-committee will select the administrator,

the LLC will not be involved in the selection. They are hoping to

have an interim administrator by February 1st.

A new exhaust date for the 847 area code was announced. 847

is now expected to be exhausted in 2Q99, which is a year longer

then previously forecast. This revised date is mainly due to a slow

down in 847-NXX assignments which occurred when the area code

was placed in jeopardy. It is thought that number pooling will

delay the exhaust date by another 4 years (i.e. 2Q03).

Ameritech stated that they believe that a cost recovery

mechanism for number pooling is needed that is separate from LNP

cost recovery.

2) St. Louis MSA -

The selected St. Louis sites will be placed on www.ported.com.

Except for 3 GTE switches, all the selected switches belong to

Ameritech. The ICC Staff suggested that 911 testing should also be done

in St. Louis as the Southern Illinois PSAP vendors are not yet familiar

with LNP.

3) Regulatory -

Ameritech has filed 2 tariffs. One of them deals with an end-

user surcharge to pay for LNP (39 cents for all users); however, this

tariff was denied. The second tariff deals with an LNP query charge

which would be applied to any calls where Ameritech launches an

LNP query for another provider. This has been allowed but the

rates are expected to be investigated.

Ameritech stated that it will wait to implement LNP until after a

cost recovery scheme has been outlined. This applies to all the

MSAs within Ameritech's region (including Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland). Ameritech believes that cost recovery could delay LNP

implementation until 2Q98.

A number pooling NXX allocation plan is being discussed where

new NPA-NXXs will only be allowed if 75% of 847 codes are 75%

filled and their 1000's blocks are 90% filled. It is claimed that this

process will extend 847's life by 6 years and 1 month. There may

still be another 40 to 50 carriers who will enter the Chicago market

over the next couple of years.

The FCC has a subcommittee dealing with NANC to cover number

pooling. NANC and INC are both discussing number pooling. INC will

recommend pre-porting vs. post, snapback and the level of contamination within blocks.

New York may be the next State to release a number pooling

administrator RFP.

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The next meeting of the ICC LNP Steering Committee will be held on

Dec. 18, 1997.