Abstract: An apparatus for authenticating a subscriber at registration is provided for use in a mobile communications system having at least a switching center communicatible with at least one equipment registry and at least two subscriber registries, wherein, for each system subscriber, data associated with that subscriber is stored at a unique address in one of the subscriber registries.

Abstract: An incoming call towards a ported telecommunications terminal is routed to the donor telecommunications node associated with the dialed directory number without first performing a number portability database (NP-DB) query. Upon determining that the telecommunications terminal associated with the specified called party directory number has been ported, a signal querying the NP-DB is transmitted by the donor node. In response, the NP-DB provides a network address representing the gaining telecommunications node to the next-to-last (N-1) switch. Utilizing the received network address, the N-1 switch releases the first call connection with the donor telecommunications node and reroutes the call connection to the gaining telecommunications node associated with the received network address.