Evolving Systems Helps Providers Continue Illinois Number Pooling Tests.

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 5, 1998--Evolving Systems (Nasdaq:EVOL), a leading provider of services and local number portability (LNP) solutions to telecommunications companies, announced that three of the nation's largest service providers have taken delivery of the company's LNP 1.3 release's separately licensable number pooling feature in order to continue participating in the ongoing Illinois Number Pooling trial in Chicago. The number pooling feature of the software will allow providers to continue operating normally when the Midwest Region Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) implements new number pooling software this month.

"Number pooling has been a success in tests in the Chicago area," said George Hallenbeck, president and CEO of Evolving Systems. "Our LNP 1.3 release's number pooling feature will allow providers to continue communicating with the Chicago-region NPAC during the next phase of testing, and it prepares providers in other regions should number pooling there take the form it has in the Illinois Number Pooling trials."

Three major service providers - an incumbent local exchange carrier, a global interexchange carrier and a major wireless carrier - are testing version 1.3 of OrderPath and NumberManager with the number pooling feature enabled. OrderPath manages the transfer, conflict resolution and tracking of numbers between service providers and the NPACs. NumberManager is a local service management system (LSMS) that translates information from the NPACs for local network provisioning. All three are involved in the number pooling trials taking place in Illinois this month.

LNP opens the door to local telephone competition by allowing consumers to keep their telephone numbers when they change service providers. Because telecommunications companies have traditionally provisioned services and billed customers based upon telephone numbers, LNP requires fundamental changes in telecommunications operations. These same changes facilitate number pooling, a system that minimizes the need for new area codes by gathering unused numbers for reassignment to service providers in need of telephone numbers.

LNP service is implemented through the NPACs which act as data clearinghouses. Evolving Systems wrote the software that runs the NPACs, including the latest version 1.4 upgrade, which contains a module that streamlines number pooling operations. This module is slated for activation in the Illinois Number Pooling trials in January and may be used later by NPACs in other regions.

In addition to preparing carriers to communicate with the NPACys version 1.4 number pooling capabilities, Evolving Systems' LNP version 1.3 suite allows customers to better handle day-to-day communications with the NPACs during heavy workload processing.

Evolving Systems, based in Englewood, Colo., is a software product development and systems integration firm providing a full range of business and operational support services and solutions for the telecommunications industry. Founded in 1985, Evolving Systems delivered the telecommunication industry's first-to-market software applications addressing LNP at the service provider level. Evolving Systems' client base includes local exchange carriers (LECs), interexchange carriers (IXCs), competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), wireless providers and network equipment suppliers.

To learn more about Evolving Systems, see its Web site at www.evolving.com.

Note to Editors: The Evolving Systems logo, OrderPath and NumberManager are trademarks of Evolving Systems, Inc.