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Order Instituting Rulemaking on the Commission's own Motion Into Competition for Local Exchange Service.

R.95-04-043

(Filed April 26, 1995)

   

Order Instituting Investigation on the Commission's own Motion Into Competition for Local Exchange Service.

I.95-04-044

(Filed April 26, 1995)

   
   

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Like much of the country, California currently is experiencing a numbering crisis. From 1947 to January 1997, the number of area codes in this state increased gradually from 3 to 13. During the next three years, however, the number of area codes in California nearly doubled. By the end of 1999, California had 25 area codes statewide. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently has implemented several measures intended to ensure efficient use of telephone numbers. Without these measures, the CPUC projects that 16 more area codes would need to be opened by the end of 2002, resulting in a statewide total of 41 area codes.

The utilization study sheds new light on the numbering crisis in the 650 area code. The data reveals that despite increasing demand for numbers, the 650 area code is not fully utilized. The study found that of the 7.6 million useable numbers in the 650 area code, approximately 5.0 million, or almost 2/3, presently are not in use. The data further establishes that the 650 area code possesses considerable room for growth, and thus, aggressive measures such as splits or overlays are not yet warranted in the 650 area code. The report further urges the CPUC to seek from the FCC authority to implement Unassigned Number Porting (UNP) as a means to more efficiently use numbers still available in the 650 area code.

This report is filed in compliance with CPUC Decision (D.) 99-12-051, and with AB 406, enacted by the California Legislature in the 1999 legislative session. (Chapter 99-809, 1999.) AB 406, codified as Public Utilities Code Section 7937, requires the CPUC to obtain historical telephone number use data from every telecommunications company in California. The CPUC's Telecommunications Division (TD) first obtained and analyzed data from the 310 area code in Los Angeles late in 1999, and produced a utilization report on 310 in March 2000. In November 2000, TD completed utilization reports covering the 415, 510, 818, and 909 area codes. This report on the 650 area code continues TD's analysis covering specific area code number utilization levels.

The 650 area code contains approximately 7.6 million telephone numbers available for consumer use. These numbers are available to telecommunications companies which obtain the numbers from the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), 1 and in turn, assign the numbers to their customers for their immediate use. Alternatively, companies may reserve numbers for future use, or retain numbers for some internal (administrative) use. Some companies provide blocks of numbers to resellers or "dealers", which then assign those numbers to customers. The FCC deems numbers that companies allocate to resellers to be "intermediate" numbers. In addition, each assigned number, after disconnection, must "age" during a transition period before assignment to the next customer. Many companies have inventories of numbers in the "aging" process. Finally, some numbers are not available for public use, as they have been set aside for emergency purposes, for technical network support, or for other reasons.

The FCC has defined numbers in these five categories - assigned, administrative, reserved, intermediate, or aging - as unavailable, either because they are already in use or are designated for some present or future use. Of the 5.0 million available numbers, approximately 1.8 million have been set aside by the CPUC to use in a lottery for companies seeking numbers. Companies possess the remaining unused 3.2 million numbers. Wireline carriers, such as Pacific Bell and many competitive local exchange carriers, hold roughly 2.7 million available numbers, while wireless carriers2 hold approximately 563,000 available numbers.

1. Monthly Lottery Allocates Prefixes

2. Improved Number Inventory Management

· Companies are required to return to the NANPA any prefix held for more than six months without being used.

· "Imminent exhaust criteria" are established in all area codes with lotteries or pooling trials. In each rate center in which companies request additional numbers, they must provide to NANPA a form demonstrating they will be out of numbers within three months.

· Companies must satisfy a minimum 75% fill rate requirement before being eligible to request a growth prefix in any area code in rationing and before being eligible to receive a thousand-block through the number pool. Companies must assign numbers in thousand block sequence, assigning numbers in the next block only once a 75% fill rate has been attained in the prior block.

3. CPUC Efforts at Federal Level

4. Utilization Studies

C. THE SCOPE OF THE UTILIZATION STUDY

    1. Distribution Statistics of Prefixes

D. NUMBERS AVAILABLE IN THE 650 AREA CODE

    1. 5.0 Million Numbers Available

E. ANALYSIS OF AVAILABLE NUMBERS

Wireline Available Numbers by Block Contamination Level

   

Rate center

0%

>0% to 10%

>10% to 15%

>15% to 20%

>20% to 25%

HALFMOON BAY

50,000

21,313

1,797

2,404

799

LA HONDA

63,000

16,843

1,783

1,600

799

LOS ALTOS

68,000

32,272

6,202

3,247

2,378

MILLBRAE

78,000

48,654

7,107

4,000

3,144

MOSS BEACH

64,000

18,602

898

1,600

799

MOUNTAIN VIEW

140,000

62,083

6,253

7,362

8,671

OAKLAND MAIN PIEDMONT

0

0

0

0

0

PACIFICA

59,000

14,827

898

2,439

799

PALO ALTO

180,000

67,113

10,623

16,272

6,266

PESCADERO

71,000

18,522

1,769

1,600

1,549

REDWOOD CITY

102,000

64,549

9,650

5,721

7,945

SAN CARLOS BELMONT

105,000

49,317

6,192

5,707

5,541

SAN MATEO

113,000

65,548

10,610

17,829

8,667

SAN FRANCISCO CENTRAL

0

0

0

0

0

SAN FRANCISCO JUNIPER

51,000

24,907

2,612

2,459

799

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO

96,000

59,466

11,585

7,301

4,753

WOODSIDE

49,000

16,642

1,797

1,600

2,381

650 NPA DA

0

0

0

0

0

GRAND TOTALS

1,289,000

580,658

79,776

81,141

55,290

Wireless Available Numbers by Block Contamination Level

Rate center

0

>0% to 10%

>10% to 15%

>15% to 20%

>20% to 25%

HALFMOON BAY

9,000

0

0

0

0

LOS ALTOS

18,000

999

0

0

0

MILLBRAE

12,000

4,974

0

846

0

MOSS BEACH

9,000

0

0

0

0

MOUNTAIN VIEW

30,000

6,867

894

817

785

PACIFICA

9,000

0

0

0

0

PALO ALTO

28,000

28,364

894

0

766

PESCADERO

9,000

0

0

0

0

REDWOOD CITY

45,000

11,720

0

0

762

SAN CARLOS BELMONT

17,000

1,995

0

0

0

SAN MATEO

35,000

22,441

1,732

3,328

2,278

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO

27,000

14,782

1,738

0

1,543

WOODSIDE

9,000

0

0

0

0

GRAND TOTALS

257,000

92,142

5,258

4,991

6,134

F. ANALYSIS OF 2.6 MILLION "UNAVAILABLE" NUMBERS

A. INTRODUCTION

G. NUMBER POOLING

H. LACK OF LOCAL NUMBER PORTABILITY STANDS AS A KEY BARRIER TO POOLING

I. UNASSIGNED NUMBER PORTING

APPENDIX A-1

For convenience, "other administrative numbers" are reported as a group for purposes of the Utilization Study

Table A-2

Prefix Holders in the 650 Area Code

1

01 COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

2

ALLEGIANCE TELECOM, INC.-CA

3

AT&T LOCAL

4

BAY AREA CELLULAR TELEPHONE

5

BROOKS FIBER COMMUNICATIONS - CALIFORNIA

6

COOK TELECOM, INC.

7

CRL NETWORK SERVICES, INC

8

FIRSTWORLD SO CA

9

FOCAL COMMUNICATIONS CORP OF CALIFORNIA

10

FRONTIER LOCAL SERVICES, INC.-CA DATA DUE 7/10/00

11

GST LIGHTWAVE, INC.-CALIFORNIA

12

GTE COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION

13

GTE MOBILNET OF CALIFORNIA

14

ICG TELECOM GROUP - CA

15

LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS, LLC-CA

16

MAP MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

17

MCIMETRO, ATS, INC.

18

METROCALL

19

MGC COMMUNICATIONS, INC.-CA

20

NETWORK SERVICES LLC

21

NEXTEL COMMUNICATIONS

22

NEXTLINK OF CALIFORNIA

23

NORTH COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS CORP.-CA

24

OPTEL CALIFORNIA TELECOM, INC

25

PACIFIC BELL

26

PACIFIC BELL MOBILE SERVICES

27

PAC-WEST TELECOMM, INC.

28

PAGENET

29

PAGING PLUS

30

RCN TELECOM SERVICES INC

31

SAN DIEGO PAGING

32

SPRINT SPECTRUM L.P.

33

TELEPORT COMMUNICATIONS GROUP - SAN FRANCISCO

34

TELIGENT, INC.-CA

35

THE WESTLINK COMPANY

36

U.S. TELEPACIFIC CORP.-CA

37

WINSTAR WIRELESS, INC.-CA

38

WORLDCOM TECHNOLOGIES, INC.-CA

TABLE G-1

AGING NUMBERS IN THE 650 area code

 
 

RESIDENTIAL

BUSINESS

TOTAL

       

WIRELINE

18

77,929

77,947

       

WIRELESS

12,008

14,536

26,544

       

TOTAL NUMBERS

12,026

92,465

104,491

APPENDIX H

NUMBER POOLING

415 Pooling Updates (as of October 1, 2000)

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

Rate Center

Forecast Blocks by Carriers for 2000 Q3

Blocks Assigned by Pooling Administrator

for 2000 Q3

Initial Blocks Forecasted by Carriers

Year -to-Date

Blocks Assigned by Pooling Administrator Year -to-Date

Blocks Remaining from Carrier- Donation to

the 415 pool

BELVEDERE

3

1

3

1

21

CORTEMADRA

6

4

6

4

35

IGNACIO

6

4

6

4

39

IVERNESS

3

0

3

0

27

MILL VALLEY

6

3

6

3

37

NICASIO

3

0

3

0

21

NOVATO

8

5

8

5

32

POINT REYES

3

0

3

0

25

SAN RAFAEL

6

4

6

4

64

SAUSALITO

5

0

5

0

37

SNFC CNTRL

75

1

75

1

109

SNFC JUNIPER

16

5

16

5

72

SNFC MT-EV

21

3

21

3

69

STNSN-BLNS

3

0

3

0

31

TOTAL

164

30

164

30

619

           

One Block = 1 thousand numbers

     

Pooling Updates (as of December 12, 2000)

             
 

2000 Q1

 

2000 Q2

 

2000 Q3

 

2000 Q4

 

Year-to-Date

 

NPA

Blocks Forecast by Carriers

Blocks Assigned by Pooling Administrator

Blocks Forecast by Carriers

Blocks Assigned by Pooling Administrator

Blocks Forecast by Carriers

Blocks Assigned by Pooling Administrator

Blocks Forecast by Carriers

Blocks Assigned by Pooling Administrator

Initial Blocks Forecasted by Carriers Year -to-Date

Blocks Assigned by Pooling Administrator Year -to-Date

Blocks Remaining from Carrier- Donation to the 415 pool

310 (pool began 3/18)

225

73

199

29

286

26

198

32

908

160

653

                       

415 (pool began 7/29)

       

164

30

193

8

357

38

623

                       

714 (pool began 9/29)

           

224

34

224

34

633

                       

909 (pool began 12/1)

           

143

19

143

19

996

TOTAL

               

1632

251

 
                       

One Block = 1 thousand numbers

                 
                       

1 NANPA is a role performed by NeuStar, Inc. The FCC chose NeuStar, formerly Lockheed Martin, to perform the functions of numbering administration and area code changes nationwide. 2 Including Type 1 Carriers. Type 1 numbers are described in Chapter 2, Sec. D. 4.a. 3 At present, only wireline carriers are required to participate in number pooling. The FCC has granted most wireless carriers an extension of time, until November, 2002, to implement the technology that will support number pooling. The FCC has permanently exempted paging companies from implementing the technology necessary to pool. 4 The percentage of numbers in use in a particular block of 1,000 numbers is referred to as the "contamination" level. 5 This assumes that companies' six-month inventory needs would be satisfied out of the unused numbers in the blocks greater than 25% contaminated. 6 Today called the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) 7 Today called Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC)

8 In addition, the California state legislature enacted Section 7937 of the California Public Utilities Code. Effective on January 1, 2000, Section 7937 requires the CPUC to prepare and submit to the Legislature, by July 1, 2001, a study of the telecommunications industry's usage rates of telephone numbers in all California area codes. This report also complies with that legislative requirement with respect to the 650 area code.

9 A company's request for its first prefix in the rate center is considered an initial request; requests for additional prefixes are considered growth requests. 10 See Chapter Three of this report for a discussion of LNP. 11 FCC's Opinion and Order on Telephone Number Portability FCC 97-74, issued March 6, 1997 12 Cellular companies, PCS companies, and paging companies comprise the wireless category. 13 ILECs and CLECs 14 Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, CC Docket No. 99-200 FCC 00-104 (released March 31, 2000). 15 Wireline carriers are composed of ILECs and CLECs. 16 A detailed break-down of the available 3.2 million numbers is shown in Table B-1 in Appendix B. 17 2.9 million numbers is comprised of 1,169,000 estimated pooling donations by companies, plus 1.75 million available through the lottery. 18 Recommendations dealing with receiving authority from the FCC to increase contamination threshold rates (25%) for pooling, recovering blocks from special use codes, and recovering unused numbers from non-LNP capable carriers and Type 1 carriers as described later in this report. 19 See Table B-2 in the appendix for a detailed breakout of the 3.6 million numbers. 20 Although all wireline carriers are required to be LNP-capable, four wireline carriers in the 650 area code remain non LNP-capable. 21 Rulemaking 95-04-043: Pooling to start June 2001. 22 10% or less contaminated means that out of 1000 numbers in a block, 100 numbers or fewer have been classified as unavailable. 23 Future need may include serving new customers or offering new services. 24 See Table B-1 in Appendix B. The 719,637 is comprised of 79,776 which are in blocks that are 10-15% contaminated, 81,141 from 15-20% contaminated, 55,290 from 20-25% contaminated, and 503,430 numbers which are in blocks that are more than 25% contaminated. Later in this chapter, TD recommends additional steps that can be implemented to make more of the 719,637 numbers available for number pooling. 25 For a discussion of numbers held for special uses, see Section D.l.c of this chapter. 26 INC's Thousand Block (NXX-X) Pooling Administration Guidelines, dated January 10, 2000, state that carriers should donate specified thousand blocks. 27 Additional numbers from the last three columns of Table 2-4: 79,776+81,141+55,290=216,207 28 See Table B-2, Appendix B, for the derivation of this estimate. 29 See Chapter 1 for the discussion on Decision 00-07-052. 30 Remote Call Forwarding allows a customer to have a local telephone number in a distant location. RFC is similar to call forwarding on a residential line, except that the RCF customer has no phone, no office and no physical presence in that location. Direct Inward Dialing uses a trunk from the central office which passes the last two to four digits of the Listed Directory Number into the PBX, thus allowing the PBX to switch the call to the correct extension without the use of an attendant. Existing DID retail service is limited to PBX services. For purposes of providing INP, DID switch functionality is used to provide INP to any CLC customer regardless of the type of terminal equipment used on the customer's premises. 31 The emergency preparedness prefixes are for services other than 911. 32 The number used for inter-area code directory assistance, which is uniform throughout California, is 1-(xxx)-555-1212. This number has been designated for this use at the federal level. 33 An example would be a customer request for 2,500 numbers to be used in 2000, coupled with a request to have the next 2,500 numbers in sequence "reserved" for the customer to use in 2001. 34 Central Office Code (NXX) Assignment Guidelines, prepared by the Industry Numbering Committee, January 27, 1999 version, Section 4.4. 35 FCC Order 00-280, CC Docket No. 99-200, adopted and released on July 31, 2000. 36 See FCC Order 00-429, ¶ 114 37 See Appendix D for a breakdown of reserved numbers reported in the 650 NPA by rate center. 38 A number pooling trial in the 650 area code is scheduled. Once the pool is implemented, carriers could donate excess numbering resources for reallocation and could get new number resources in smaller quantities (i.e. at the 1,000 number block level). 39 Wireline carriers serving the Mountain View rate center reported 28,236 reserved numbers and wireline carriers serving the South San Francisco rate center reported 48,281 reserved numbers. 40 See Appendix F for a breakdown of intermediate numbers held by wireline and wireless carriers. 41 Type 1 numbers are programmed in the wireline carrier's end office, but are used by a wireless carrier. 42 143,600 out of a total of 275,600 Type 1 numbers are unaccounted for or mismatched. 43 The 650 study revealed that Type 1 numbers given to wireless carriers are from prefixes in which LNP has already been initiated by the wireline carriers. Because Type 1 numbers reside in the wireline carrier's end office, Type 1 numbers are LNP-capable and thus suited for pooling. 44 These blocks are 10% or less contaminated. 45 In the NRO Order, both 360 days and 365 days were used as the time period for aging business numbers. In a clarifying order, the FCC adopted 365 days as the aging period for business numbers. When the CPUC sent out the parameters for utilization data for this study, the 360 day time period for aging business numbers was used. In order to be consistent with the time frames the FCC adopted, the CPUC is now using 365 days for aging business numbers. 46 Two prefixes have been opened in the 310 pool for LRN assignment purposes. 47 As of December 18, 2000. 48 Three prefixes have been opened in the 415 pool for LRN assignment purposes 49 Before a whole prefix is activated, the prefix must be first listed for 66 days in the Local Exhange Routing Guide (LERG), stating the rate center where the prefix will be located. 50 Data can be found in Pooling Appendix. 51 Sections 6.1.4 & 6.1.5 in INC 99-0127-023, January 10, 2000 52 FCC 96-286 in CC Docket No. 95-116. 53 A third company lacks LNP capability in one switch in the 650 area code, although it is LNP capable in all other switches in the 650 area code. If this switch were LNP capable, an additional 1,000 numbers would be eligible for pooling. 54 FCC 99-19, WT Docket 98-229; CC Docket No. 95-116, Released: February 9, 1999. Paging companies are indefinitely exempt from becoming LNP-capable. 55 Further Comments of the California Public Utilities Commission and the People of the State of California in CC Docket No. 99-200, submitted May 19, 2000. 56 See INC Contribution #336R of September 29, 2000, "UNP Architecture With Minimal Administrative Structure" and Focal and MCIWorldcom's Report on UNP Trial 57 First NRO Order, FCC 00-104, CC Docket 99-200, ¶ 230. "We reiterate our finding that UNP and ITN [individual telephone number pooling] are not yet sufficiently developed for adoption as nationwide numbering resource optimization measures and conclude that ITN and UNP should not be mandated at this time.". 58 See ¶ 231: "We permit carriers, however, to engage voluntarily in UNP where it is mutually agreeable and where no public safety or network reliability concerns have been identified." 59 For example, while the ILECs still control roughly 95% of the residential toll market, competitors have succeeded in making significant inroads into the business toll market, where the ILECs now hold only 50% of the market. If the CPUC were to decide that the ILECs should be "made whole" for any lost toll revenues, then other companies legitimately could demand a mechanism to make them whole as well. Alternatively, if the competitors cannot practically be reimbursed for lost revenues, then as a policy matter, the CPUC must decide if it is reasonable to allow only the ILECs to recover such revenue.

60 "Where Have All the Numbers Gone?" (Second Edition), The Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee, prepared by Economics and Technology, Inc., June 2000. The estimate of $5.56 may be conservative.

61 The last major rate design proceeding undertaken for Pacific Bell and Verizon, then GTEC, was the Implementation and Rate Design (IRD) phase of the New Regulatory Framework proceeding, I.87-l l-033. The IRD phase took three years to complete. 62 See Chapter 1 for the discussion on Decision 00-07-052.

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