Bell Canada´s trial experience of a network based personal communication services

Network Portability Services (NPS) is a network based personal communication service, where a user is assigned only one telephone number (Personal Number) to be reached at any time and place. This personal number could be used by the user´s community of callers consisting of family, friends, colleagues, customers etc. The Personal Number (PN) is flexible to fit the user´s communication life style. This PN has an associated service profile, resident in the network, which contains information such as NPS features, and the user´s locations. The user´s location would be any network address or communication device (land line, portable phone, pager, voice messaging, secretary etc.). This information which was data filled by the Telco at the time of subscription, could also be modified by the user via Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) or the Telco´s Customer Assistance Centre (CAC). NPS provides the user with geographical mobility and feature portability. For example, if the user subscribes to call screening, voice messaging etc., these features are always accessible to the user regardless of his geographical location. To test the NPS concept Bell Canada started a field trial in the Ottawa Hull area in January 1992. The trial was split into two phases. The first phase was to identify the market segment and the popular NPS features. The second phase was to enhance some of the NPS features and the marketing approach to fit, more closely, the user´s needs and life style, and to focus on the market segment that found NPS of value to their daily activities. The first phase of the trial targeted the mass market, and ran for eight months, supporting approximately 800 users. The second phase targeted the niche market identified in Phase I, ran for four months and supported 300 users