Customer Billing Name & Address (BNA) Records - A Matter Of Life And Death. 

The ability to render a bill strikes at the heart of any business. When it comes to telephone services and number portability, the availability of those records can literally make the difference between life and death in an emergency situation. There are approximately 3,700 public safety access points (PSAPs) that handle '911' emergency calls. Before competition and number portability, the incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) were responsible for providing updates to the automatic location indicators (ALIs) database used to locate emergency callers. With the advent of local number portability (LNP), ILECs are responsible for only their own customers' numbers. In large cities, where competition for local service is the strongest, the '911' database is deteriorating the fastest. There is a temporary solution, albeit reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg cartoon. The Number Portability Administration Center (www.npac.com) is operated by NeuStar (www.neustar.com) a spin-off of Lockheed Martin chosen by the FCC in 1998. NeuStar developed (get this) a voice response unit (VRU) that allows emergency center access via passcode. Upon entering the telephone number, the VRU responds with the 24-hour emergency contact number for the competitive service provider that issued or controls the number. (www.interactive-week.com) Couldn't they make it a one-step process? Like, oh....Match-A-Name?

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