Access to the Industry Portability Management System

Local and Mobile Number Portability are regulated multi-network services under the Telecommunications Act 2001. The Commerce Commission is responsible for determining the terms relating to local and mobile number portability. Those terms are set out in the Commission’s Local and Mobile Number Portability (LMNP) Determination.

Once a new party has been issued a number block by the Number Administration Deed (NAD) and operates a PSTN they are considered to be a party to the LMNP Determination and are liable for costs under that Determination.

The TCF assists with facilitating access to the Industry Portability Management System (IPMS), working with industry to ensure that service levels for LMNP are adhered to. The TCF is also responsible for the managing the cost allocation process for LMNP.

One of the requirements to become a Party to the Determination is that the company has control over a numbering resource, which requires membership of, and an allocation of local or mobile numbers from the NAD.

If a company who resells local and/or mobile telecommunications services requires access to the IPMS to facilitate the number portability and they are not entitled to be a party to the Number Portability Determination (including if they do not have an allocation of numbers from the NAD) they can apply for reseller access to the IPMS system by contacting the TCF Forum Administrator.

View a list of Parties to the Determination

As a result of Mobile Number Portability (MNP), there are providers of Short Message Services (SMS) that require access to the list of ported mobile numbers.

Prior to commencing discussions with the TCF on accessing this information from IPMS the following pre-requisites must be in place. The party must:

1. Be a provider of SMS services, or about to become a confirmed as a provider of SMS services by at least one existing Mobile Carrier who is a party to the Number Portability Determination.
2. Have received the technical documentation from a Mobile Carrier and understood the requirements.
3. Demonstrate the ability to develop the necessary API calls to access the IPMS Ported Mobile Numbers Report.
   
   

If these pre-requisites are met the party requesting access to IPMS should contact the TCF Forum Administrator.

If a company requires access to the information contained in the IPMS and they do not meet the criteria for a Party to the Number Portability Determination, Reseller or SMS Partner, they should contact the TCF Forum Administrator setting out the reasons they require access to IPMS.

Each application will be assessed separately on a case by case basis.