Intrado Releases National Repository Line Level Database for Carrier Beta Testing

Intrado Inc. (www.intrado.com) announced today the availability of a beta version of its intelliBase NRLLDB, a comprehensive National Repository Line Level Database (NRLLDB) service. The hosted, managed database service is designed to aid in the resolution of billing and customer care issues for North American telecommunications carriers.

intelliBase NRLLDB, which Intrado believes is the first NRLLDB made available for commercial testing, aids in determining which service provider owns individual telephone lines and provides a streamlined approach to current billing issues created by the proliferation of additional local telephone service providers in North America.

Multiple carriers will participate in two phases of beta testing. Phase one tests the ability to put data into the database. Phase two, expected to begin this month, will address output functionality and the accessibility to individual telephone numbers or telephone number block-level data, as well as company profile information.

A subset of the NRLLDB solution is available for purchase. This subset, a Billing Name and Address (BNA) solution, assists long-distance carriers in identifying ownership of specific BNA information. The intelliBase NRLLDB beta 1 billing solution is available, with a beta 2 version launching later this month. The full NRLLDB solution will be available commercially in the fall.

“The telecommunications industry needs an accelerated solution to handle current billing problems that both large and small companies face on a daily basis,” Intrado president and CEO George Heinrichs said in a prepared statement. “The carriers involved in the beta testing program will put the database through its paces, populate intelliBase NRLLDB with accurate data and help us identify any issues that may come up regarding functionality. This initial customer testing brings us one step closer to providing a reliable resource for North American carriers.”

The NRLLDB is being built in response to the industry’s demand to improve customer billing and record maintenance efforts. The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), a North American standards body, reports complications in the management of telephone records for billing purposes result in revenue losses and operating costs of at least $1 billion annually for local and long-distance carriers. The intelliBase NRLLDB will contain line, switch and company level information specific to each working telephone number in the North American Dialing Plan, providing billing information access in one consolidated location.

Gartner Dataquest analyst Norbert Scholz says, “A comprehensive database eliminates the need to research multiple sources for the owner of the billing relationship for a particular telephone number and carriers will have a central source to help them address these issues quickly and effectively. Currently, the lack of accurate billing data results in loss of revenue, billing disputes and expensive billing validation efforts.”

In addition to participating in the beta testing, companies can join Intrado’s partner program, which is designed to create a fully integrated partner network of data and OSS providers, value-added resellers and integration vendors.