NOTICES
PENNSYLVANIA PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION
Petition of the North American Numbering Plan Administrator on Behalf of the Pennsylvania Telecommunications Industry for Approval of Numbering Plan Area Relief Planning for the 570 Numbering Plan Area
[42 Pa.B. 7789]
[Saturday, December 22, 2012]Public Meeting held
December 5, 2012Commissioners Present: Robert F. Powelson, Chairperson; John F. Coleman, Jr., Vice Chairperson; Wayne E. Gardner; James H. Cawley; Pamela A. Witmer
Petition of the North American Numbering Plan Administrator on behalf of the Pennsylvania Telecommunications Industry for Approval of Numbering Plan Area Relief Planning for the 570 NPA; P-2009-2117193 By the Commission:
Before the Commission for its consideration is the Joint Carriers'1 Petition to Modify the Commission's July 19, 2010 Order implementing area code relief for the 570 Numbering Plan Area (NPA) or area code. Specifically, the Joint Carriers are requesting a limited modification of the July 19, 2010 Order (July 19th Order) in order to extend the customer education and permissive dialing period from three month to six months in light of the extended forecast for the 570 area code. The Commission grants in part and denies in part the Joint Carrier's Petition to Modify.
Background
On June 28, 1996, the telecommunications industry asked the Commission to decide how to relieve the shortage of numbering resources in the original 717 area code as the industry could not reach a consensus. Accordingly, the Commission opened a docket at P-00961071 that ultimately led to the creation of the 570 area code on May 21, 1998.2 The 570 NPA was a geographic split3 of the original 717 area code and was activated on April 8, 1999. The geographic area covered by the new 570 area code is comprised of 21 north-central counties and includes the cities of Williamsport, Wilkes-Barre, Hazelton, Scranton, and Stroudsburg.
The North American Numbering Plan Administrator (''NANPA''), NeuStar, Inc. (Neustar), had projected that the 570 NPA would have a life of approximately six years before the numbering resources would exhaust. Nevertheless, on May 4, 2000, or approximately one year later, the Commission was notified that relief planning for the 570 NPA was necessary yet again. According to the NANPA, the projected exhaust date for the 570 area code was now the first quarter of 2002.4 Accordingly, a 570 NPA Relief Meeting was held on June 1, 2000, where the industry reached a consensus5 to implement an all-services distributed overlay for the 570 area code with implementation of this overlay to begin on October 2, 2000.
On July 19, 2000, NeuStar filed the petition with the Commission requesting approval of its relief plan to implement an overlay for the geographic area covered by the 570 NPA (''July 19th Petition''). After receipt of this petition, the Commission requested comments from interested parties on the July 19th Petition and scheduled public input hearings regarding what type of relief should be implemented in the 570 NPA and when this relief should be implemented.
During the course of its deliberations regarding the July 19th petition, the Commission had received from the Federal Communications Commission (''FCC'') the authority to implement such number conservation measures as 1,000-block number pooling6 and NXX code reclamation7 in the 570 area code.8 Furthermore, the FCC had mandated that all wireless carriers participate in pooling as of November 24, 2002.9 Thus, wireless carriers began participating in Pennsylvania's mandatory pools, including the pool in 570. As a result of the implementation of these various number conservation measures, the 570 area code experienced an unprecedented, efficient use its numbering resources, which, in turn, lengthened the life expectancy of the 570 area code.
In May of 2003, the NANPA, after taking into account the effects of the number conservation measures, revised the projected exhaust date for the 570 NPA to the third quarter of 2008. A relief plan may be withdrawn prior to its approval if it is determined that the NPA will not exhaust in the next five years.10 Accordingly, by Order entered August 1, 2003, at P-00961071F002, the Commission concluded that the data on which the 570 relief plan had been filed was outdated and that the various number conservation measures that had been implemented had resulted in more numbers becoming available in the 570 area code. Consequently, the Commission determined that there was good cause to dismiss the July 19th Petition.
Subsequently, on March 30, 2009, the NANPA again notified the Industry and the Commission that it needed to meet to discuss relief alternatives for the 570 NPA. According to the April Number Resource Utilization Forecast (''NRUF'') and NPA Exhaust Analysis April 24, 2009 Update (''2009 NRUF Report''),11 the 570 NPA was projected to exhaust all available NXX codes during the third quarter 2011. Further, the 570 NPA was declared to be in jeopardy on April 1, 2009.12
The Industry met via conference call May 27, 2009, to discuss various relief alternatives proposed by the NANPA. At this meeting, the NANPA proposed four relief alternatives to alleviate the situation in the 570 NPA. Two of the proposed relief alternatives were two-way geographic splits and the other two were all-services distributed overlays. The industry reached a consensus to recommend an all-services distributed overlay as the form of relief for the 570 NPA for several reasons.
Thereafter, on July 1, 2009, NeuStar filed a petition with the Commission requesting approval of its consensus plan for the 570 Numbering Plan Area (''NPA'' or ''area code'').13 By an Order entered July 29, 2009, the Commission denied the industry's overlay recommendation and requested written comments from interested parties on the four relief alternatives that had initially been presented by Neustar to the telecommunications industry. By Order entered December 23, 2009, the Commission scheduled five public input hearings in various cities located throughout the 570 NPA.14
The Commission reviewed the written comments and the transcripts of the public input hearings regarding which form of area code relief should be implemented upon exhaust of the 570 NPA and the timeframe for the implementation. Thus, by Order entered July 19, 2010, the Commission directed the implementation of an all-services distributed overlay as the form of area code relief for the 570 NPA. Additionally, the Commission established an implementation schedule for the overlay. The Commission directed that all network preparation for the implementation of the new overlay be completed within eight months or no later than March 1, 2011 at 12:01a.m (EST). Furthermore, the Commission directed Neustar not activate15 the new NPA or assign any NXX or central office codes from the new overlay until three months to NXX code exhaust in the 570 area code and that once the ''three months to exhaust'' threshold has been reached, the permissive dialing period may begin, in which the telecommunications industry can start customer education programs for the new NPA.
NANPA informed the Commission that the ''272'' area code number will be assigned as the overlay code for the 570 area code. On October 26, 2012, the FCC released the latest area code projections set forth in the October 2012 NRUF report. The October 2012 NRUF data indicates that the latest projected exhaust date for the 570 NPA is the third quarter of 2013.
Joint Carriers' Petition
On February 21, 2012, the Joint Carriers filed a petition in which they requested the Commission to modify its implementation schedule for the overlay from the three-month customer education and permissive dialing period to the more generally-accepted industry practice of a six-month customer education and permissive dialing period. The Joint Petitioners assert that their collective experience has shown that six months is the minimum period necessary for customers who are accustomed to dialing seven digits for local calls to adapt to dialing ten digits for such calls before mandatory ten-digit dialing begins. The Joint Carriers further assert that a six-month interval is the minimum amount of time needed by alarm companies to make required changes to customer premises auto-dialers, by businesses and PBX customers to prepare for and make their equipment and data base changes, by consumers to reprogram other types of equipment like life safety systems, speed dialing buttons on home and wireless phone and any remote call forwarding settings, and by carriers to complete preparation for the mandatory dialing change.
The Joint Carriers assert that providing only three months for customer education would disrupt the schedule for staged customer communications and reinforcement messages customers typically receive in overlay implementations, and would essentially limit the industry to a single outreach to customers, instead of the two outreaches that the industry typically has made in other overlay implementations across the country in recent years. The Joint Carriers state that limiting the outreach to only one communication could be detrimental to a smooth customer transition to ten-digit dialing and increase the chances that some customers will not be fully informed. The Joint Carriers state that since the overlay in the 570 NPA will be an initial overlay in the region, it will require a longer permissive dialing and customer education period to acclimate the customers to the change to mandatory ten-digit dialing. The Joint Carriers note that the three other overlays implemented in Pennsylvania (the NPAs 267 and 484 in 1998, and 878 in 2001) all involved longer customer education and permissive dialing periods than the Commission has permitted here.
The Joint Carriers served the Petition to Modify on various parties including the Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA). The OCA filed its answer to the Petition in which it stated that it supported the Joint Carriers' request that the customer education and permissive dialing period be extended from three months to six months. OCA states that it supports a process that allows consumers greater time to adapt to the ten-digit dialing format. OCA Petition at 3. However, OCA notes that the projected exhaust date for the 570 area code has been modified twice since the issuance of the Commission's July 19th Order. Accordingly, OCA states that the Commission should not identify a specific start date for the six month consumer education and permissive dialing period to begin. Id. at 4.
Discussion
The Joint Carriers are requesting the Commission to modify the implementation schedule for the 272 overlay code that is being imposed over the 570 area code to allow for six months of customer education and permissive dialing instead of just three months. The Commission notes that the OCA supports this proposition.
In the July 1, 2009, petition, the telecommunications industry had reached consensus on a thirteen-month implementation timeframe for the overlay area code being imposed over the 570 area code. At that time, due the timing of its decision on what should be the appropriate form of area code relief for the 570 area code, the Commission purposefully shortened the thirteen-month implementation timeframe. However, the Commission, at this time, is now amenable to extending the customer education and permissive dialing period that had originally been established in its previous order.
The latest NRUF forecast projects indicate that the 570 area code is set to exhaust its remaining NXX codes by the third quarter of 2013. The Commission's past experience with area code overlays is that they have been fully implemented within as little as six months and we note that the network preparation for the 272 overlay code has already been accomplished.
When introducing a new area code, there is an adjustment period commonly known as a permissive dialing period. During the permissive dialing period, customers may reach numbers in the area that is to be overlaid by either dialing the area code plus the number or the old way by using the seven-digit number. During the permissive period, customers are encouraged to make calls using ten-digits. At the end of the permissive period, the mandatory dialing period commences and all calls must be made using the area code plus the seven-digit number. If only the seven-digit number is dialed at this time, the customer will reach a recorded announcement stating they must hang up and redial the number using the area code plus the seven-digit number. This recording will be available permanently.
The Commission agrees with the concept that a longer permissive dialing and customer education period will increase the chances that the customers in the region are fully informed about ten-digit dialing and result in a smoother customer transition to mandatory ten-digit dialing. Accordingly, the Commission will extend the permissive dialing period from three months that had initially been established to the requested six months.
We direct Neustar to continue to provide the Commission with monthly updates on the projected exhaust date of the 570 NPA. Thereupon, the Commission will inform all NXX code holders in Pennsylvania when the 570 NPA is six months away from exhaust. Once the 'six months to exhaust' threshold mentioned above has been reached, the permissive dialing period will begin and the telecommunications industry can start customer education programs for the new NPA, including the fact that when the new overlay area code is finally activated that the FCC requires that all calls be made dialing ten digits, dialing the area code and the seven-digit number.
However, in view of the well-documented disruption to customers caused by changes in their area code, it is in the public interest to assure that new area codes are opened only when it is necessary, and only after the existing number resources in the existing area code are close to exhaustion. Accordingly, we continue to direct that Neustar not activate the new NPA or assign any NXX or central office codes from the new overlay until three months to NXX code exhaust in the 570 area code. We believe this is sufficient time to ensure that NXX code holders in Pennsylvania will not be without adequate numbering resources to meet customer demand. We also still believe that the requirement of mandatory ten-digit dialing should continue to be suspended for the new overlay NPA until the actual assignment of an NXX code from the new overlay NPA; Therefore,
It Is Ordered That:
1. The Joint Carriers' Petition to Modify the Commission July 19, 2010 Order is granted in part and denied in part consistent with the body of this Order.
2. All NXX code holders in Pennsylvania shall not commence their customer education program for the new overlay code until the Commission informs them that the 570 area code will exhaust within six months.
3. From the effective date of this Order, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator shall continue to provide this Commission with monthly updates on the projected exhaust date of the 570 NPA. Time to exhaust in months shall be calculated and based on actual carrier demand for numbers. The monthly updates shall be addressed to Mr. Christopher Hepburn, Bureau of Technical Utility Services.
4. The Commission shall inform all NXX code holders in Pennsylvania when the 570 NPA is six months to NXX code exhaust so that the Commission can ensure that all carriers, including non-pooling carriers, will have non-discriminatory access to numbers when needed to meet customer demand.
5. A copy of this order shall be published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin and also posted on the Commission's website at http://www.puc.pa.gov.
6. A copy of this order shall be served to all NXX code holders in Pennsylvania, the Office of Consumer Advocate, the Office of Small Business Advocate, the Pennsylvania Telephone Association, and Neustar-NANPA.
ROSEMARY CHIAVETTA,
Secretary
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 12-2510. Filed for public inspection December 21, 2012, 9:00 a.m.] _______
1 Verizon Pennsylvania, Inc., Verizon North LLC, MCImetro Access Transmission Services LLC d/b/a Verizon Access Transmission Services (collectively ''Verizon''), AT&T Communications of Pennsylvania, LLC, TCG Pittsburgh, TCG Delaware Valley, Inc., New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC, d/b/a AT&T Mobility (collectively, ''AT&T''), T-Mobile Northeast LLC, VoiceStream Pittsburgh (collectively, ''T-Mobile''), Sprint Communications Company, L.P., Sprint Spectrum, L.P., Nextel Communications of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc., and NPCR, Inc. (collectively, ''Sprint''), and Verizon Wireless.
2 Petition of NPA Relief Coordinator Re: 717 Area Code Relief Plan, Docket No. P-00961071 (Order entered May 21, 1998).
3 A geographic split occurs when an existing area code is divided into two or more separate geographic areas where one area retains the existing NPA and the others receive new NPAs.
4 Pursuant to the INC Guidelines, the NANPA was required to prepare relief options for an NPA that was projected to exhaust within 36 months and to conduct an industry meeting with the goal of reaching industry consensus regarding the form of relief for the area code. See INC Guidelines at §§ 5.0, 5.5.
5 A consensus is established when substantial agreement has been reached. Substantial agreement means more than a simple majority, but not necessarily unanimity. CLC Principles and Procedures, May 1998, at § 6.8.8.
6 Thousand-block number pooling is the process by which a 10,000 block of numbers is separated into ten sequential blocks of 1,000 numbers and allocated separately to providers within a rate center.
7 NXX code reclamation involves the return of unused NXX codes to the NANPA. Within six months of receiving an NXX code, a carrier must assign at least one number to an end user or the entire NXX code must be returned to the NANPA. 47 C.F.R. § 52.15(g)(iii).
8 The Commission implemented NXX code reclamation in the 570 NPA in August 2000, while mandatory 1,000-block pooling was implemented in February 2002. See Petition of Representative Keith R. McCall and Members of the Northeast Delegation of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Requesting that Additional Authority be Delegated to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to Implement Additional Number Conservation Measures, CC Docket No. 99-200 and NSD-L-01-113 (Order released December 28, 2001). By order entered on August 9, 2001, at Docket No. M-00001427, the Commission, with the consensus of the industry, ordered the implementation of a voluntary pool in 570, which subsequently became mandatory at the direction of the FCC in the McCall Order.
9 In the Matter of Verizon Wireless' Petition For Partial Forbearance From the Commercial Mobile Radio Services Number Portability Obligation and Telephone Number Portability, WT Docket 01-84, CC Docket No. 95-116 (Order adopted July 16, 2002).
10 INC Guidelines at § 5.10.
11 Federal rules that went into effect on July 17, 2000, require all carriers to report to the NANPA their historical and forecast utilization data. 47 C.F.R. § 52.15(f). These reports are made semi-annually and are referred to as the ''NRUF Reports.'' Using this data along with the rate of assignment of NXX codes in the NPA, the NANPA predicts the exhaust date for all NPAs in its NPA Exhaust Analysis. These reports can be found at www.nanpa.com.
12 According to the Central Office Code (NXX) Assignment Guidelines), ''A jeopardy condition exists when the forecasted and/or actual demand for NXX resources will exceed the known supply during the planning/implementation interval for relief.''
13 If the industry reaches a consensus, then its consensus plan is filed with the Commission and the Commission has an opportunity to take action at that point. See NPA Code Relief Planning & Notification Guidelines, INC97-0404-016, reissued November 8, 1999, at § 5.6.
14 The public input hearings were held in the cities of Wilkes-Barre, Jim Thorpe, Williamsport, Scranton and Lock Haven.
15 New customers or existing customers requesting additional numbers may be assigned numbers from the new area code upon its activation.
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