NOTICES
PENNSYLVANIA PUBLIC
UTILITY COMMISSION
Somos, Inc., in Its Role as North American Numbering Plan Administrator Petition for Approval of Numbering Plan Area Relief Planning for the 814 NPA; Errata Notice
[50 Pa.B. 2619]
[Saturday, May 16, 2020]Public Meeting held
May 21, 2020Commissioners Present: Gladys Brown Dutrieuille, Chairperson; David W. Sweet, Vice Chairperson; John F. Coleman, Jr.; Ralph V. Yanora
Somos, Inc., in its Role as North American Numbering Plan Administrator Petition for Approval of Numbering Plan Area Relief Planning for the 814 NPA; Docket Number: P-2018-3004265
Errata Notice This is to advise Somos, Inc., the North American Numbering Plan Administrator, all jurisdictional telecommunications carriers, wireless carriers, the Office of Consumer Advocate, and the Office of Small Business Advocate that the current implementation schedule for the new overlay area code for the 814 NPA must be corrected because the dates therein indicating the beginning of the Permissive 10-Digit Dialing and Customer Education Period and the beginning of the Mandatory 10-digit dialing should have reflected Saturdays so as to minimize impacts to customers.
The implementation schedule that is set forth on p. 14 of the Order entered April 30, 2020, at the above-captioned docket, is corrected to reflect that the beginning of the permissive dialing date is October 3, 2020 and the beginning of the mandatory dialing date is April 3, 2021.
Additionally, because of the revised and corrected dates regarding the permissive and mandatory dialing periods, the completion of Network Preparation Period is also extended to reflect that all NXX code holders in Pennsylvania must complete all network preparation to their systems that is necessary to implement the all-services area code overlay in the 814 NPA no later than October 3, 2020.
Further, the URL link referring to the April 2020 NRUF and NPA Exhaust Analysis on page 2 of the Order in footnote no. 4 is incorrect. The correct URL link is https://nationalnanpa.com/reports/reports_npa.html. Accordingly, pages 2 and 14 of the Order and Ordering Paragraph No. 5 on page 15 will be modified to reflect these corrections.
Attached for your records, please find the corrected pages. In addition, a revised version of the Order, reflecting the corrections above, will be placed on the PA PUC's website.
the Commission requesting approval of the Industry's area code relief plan for the 814 Numbering Plan Area (''NPA'' or ''area code'') (814 Petition). According to the 814 Petition, the April 2018 Numbering Resource Utilization Forecast (NRUF)1 and NPA Exhaust Analysis (2018 NRUF Report) projected that absent NPA numbering relief, the supply of central office codes (often referred to as CO or NXX codes) for the 814 NPA will exhaust during the second quarter of 2021.2 Based on this information, the Industry reached a consensus3 to implement an all-services distributed overlay for the geographic area covered by the 814 NPA, which would create a new area code to service the area.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has plenary jurisdiction over numbering issues in the United States,4 mandates that states must implement timely area code relief, i.e., add a new area code, when the area codes within their boundaries are about to exhaust their supply of NXX codes.5 The Commission, therefore, is now faced with deciding when and in what form a new area code must be added. As stated earlier, the NANPA filed the 814 Petition requesting approval of the Industry's recommended plan to alleviate the numbering exhaust for the 814 NPA.
Thereafter, the telecommunications industry should start customer education programs for the new NPA, including the need to dial all ten digits of the area code and phone number.
Thus, the implementation schedule for the new area code overlay will be as follows:
Event
Time Frame
Completion of Network Preparation Period Completed by October 3, 2020 Permissive 10-Digit Dialing and Customer Education Period
(Calls within 814 NPA can be dialed using 7 or 10 digits)October 3, 2020, to April 3, 2021 End of the Permissive Dialing Period and start of Mandatory 10-digit dialing. April 3, 2021 Activation of New Area Code May 1, 2021 Total Implementation Interval 13 months
Conclusion
The policy of the Commission is to ensure that numbering resources are made available on an equitable, efficient and timely basis in Pennsylvania while ensuring that the impact of proliferating new area codes on consumers is as minimal as possible. In this instance, the Commission notes that an overlay is the least disruptive method of resolving the 814 NPA exhaust issue. As mentioned earlier, we direct the Office of Communications to work with the Law Bureau regarding the Consumer Education Campaign to inform the public about the implementation of the new overlay code covering the 814 NPA; Therefore,
It Is Ordered That:
1. The Petition filed with the Commission by the predecessor of Somos, Inc., the North American Number- ing Plan Administrator, on behalf of the Pennsylvania telecommunications industry at the above docket for approval of its consensus relief plan for the 814 NPA is hereby granted to the extent consistent with the body of this Order.
2. The industry consensus recommendation set forth in the petition for an all-services distributed overlay relief plan for the 814 NPA is hereby approved.
3. The Office of Communications and the Law Bureau are directed to develop a Consumer Education Campaign that may include media outreach, social media and public 1 2 3 4 5 outreach to give consumers and businesses information regarding the implementation of the all-services distributed overlay of the 814 NPA.
4. The Secretary's Bureau shall cause notice of the time, place, and date(s) of the Consumer Education Forum(s) to be published in the newspapers of general circulation in the counties and areas of the 814 NPA.
5. All NXX code holders in Pennsylvania complete not later than October 3, 2020, all network preparation to their systems that is necessary to implement the all-services area code overlay in the 814 NPA.
6. The North American Numbering Plan Administrator shall not assign any NXX central office codes from the new area code prior to exhausting the usable NXX code resources in the 814 area code.
7. A copy of the press release regarding the Consumer Education Campaign shall be posted on the Commission's website at http://www.puc.pa.gov.
8. A copy of this order shall be published both in the Pennsylvania Bulletin and on the Commission's website.
ROSEMARY CHIAVETTA,
Secretary
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 20-678. Filed for public inspection May 15, 2020, 9:00 a.m.] _______
1 The NRUF Report is a semiannual report compiled by the NANPA, based on information provided by the telecom industry in accordance with FCC rules. The main purposes of the NRUF Report are to forecast the exhaust of each area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) and to forecast the exhaust of the NANP as a whole.
2 Subsequent to the filing of this Petition, the April 2020 NRUF Report indicates that the projected exhaust date for the 814 NPA has been extended to the third quarter of 2022. See 2020-1 NRUF and NPA Exhaust Analysis, April 2020. The April 2020 NRUF Report can be accessed on the NANPA website at https://nationalnanpa.com/reports/reports_npa.html.
3 A consensus is established when substantial agreement has been reached. Substantial agreement means more than a simple majority, but not necessarily unanimity. ATIS Operating Procedures at https://www.atis.org/01_legal/docs/OP.pdf, § 7.1, ver. (ATIS Mar.1, 2015).
4 47 U.S.C. § 251(e)(1).
5 See In the Matter of Petition for Declaratory Ruling and Request for Expedited Action on the July 15, 1997 Order of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Regarding Area Codes 412, 610, 215, 717; Implementation of the Local Competition Provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Memorandum Opinion and Order and Order on Reconsideration, 13 FCC Rcd 190029 (1998).
No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Bulletin full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.
