V. Assignment of Proceeding
Loretta M. Lynch is the Assigned Commissioner and Thomas R. Pulsifer is the assigned ALJ in this proceeding.
1. The Commission has undertaken reasonable audit and conservation measures to assure that telephone numbers in the 909 area code are being utilized as efficiently as possible.
2. In D.99-09-059, the Commission previously approved an industry plan that entailed a two-phase geographic split of the 909 area code, followed by an overlay to be implemented for creating additional number in the 909 area code. That plan was deferred to allow implementation of number conservation measures throughout California's area codes.
3. The Commission has a responsibility to California consumers to efficiently manage California's telephone numbers, and to implement all possible number conservation measures before imposing the burden of an area code split or overlay on consumers.
4. In view of the consistent pattern of carriers' significant overforecasting of demand for thousand blocks, carriers' forecasts of blocks required to meet six-month inventory needs are also likely to be overstated.
5. There exist eight whole prefixes, or 80 one thousand number blocks available in the 909 area code.
6. There are 712 one-thousand number blocks already assigned to various rate centers and currently available to be used by carriers within the 909 number pool.
7. Beginning in November 2002, the 909 number pool was the only way for wireless carriers to acquire new telephone numbers or to build up their respective six-month inventories in the 909 area code.
8. Carrier draws from the 909 number pool spiked significantly in November 2002 after wireless companies joined the number pool and no longer received 10,000-number blocks of numbers through the monthly lottery, and again in May 2003 after Commission publication of a draft plan to split the 310 area code.
9. Without the influence of the November 2002 and May 2003 spike, carriers' average monthly draw from the 909 number pool was 23 thousand-number blocks.
10. There are currently adequate telephone numbers for the 909 area code to meet carrier and customer needs.
11. An increased level of allowable contamination, or usage, rates for poolable thousand-blocks (from current 10% to 25%) increases the number of thousand-blocks that are available to all carriers through each area code's number pool.
12. FCC rules require wireless carriers to implement LNP technology by November 2003.
13. Wireless local number portability will help to decrease the demand for new telephone numbers in the 909 and other area codes, as customers exercise the option to keep their existing telephone number(s) if they switch carriers.
14. Wireless LNP could expand the industry's participation in other number conservation measures that would allow carriers to receive numbers in even smaller increments from an area code number pool.
15. Implementing a Technology-Specific Overlay on the 909 and other California area codes could make more telephone numbers available in the current 909 area code.
16. It is in consumers' best interests that an independent staff verification of carrier-reported numbers be made prior to adoption of a back-up plan for that area code.
1. The Commission's telephone number conservation policies and actions to date have spared customers the risk and inconvenience of being prematurely forced to undergo an area code change.
2. It is important to carefully scrutinize carriers' claims of impending number exhaust, and to analyze the remaining numbers in the 909 area code in the context of the rate that carriers are withdrawing those numbers from the number pool, and the Commission's options for managing those remaining numbers.
3. Flexibility exists to reallocate 10,000-number blocks between the pool inventory and the lottery allotment as deemed necessary to best provide for carriers' number resource needs.
4. The significant draw on the 909 number pool resources was precipitated by the wireless carriers' joining the pool for the first time in November 2002, and by publication of a draft proposal to split the 310 area code in May 2003.
5. It is prudent to base our future estimates of carrier draws from the 909 number pool on an average that does not include the November 2002 and May 2003 data.
6. It is premature to implement a geographic split or overlay of the 909 area code until the data indicates that demand exceeds supply of numbers, and until the effects of other number conservation measures such as the increased contamination threshold, wireless local number portability, and a technology specific overlay, have been evaluated.
7. The wireless carriers' implementation of local number portability technology will be another important number conservation tool for the 909 area code, as well as California's other area codes.
8. The existing 909 area code number pool should continue pursuant to the federal number pooling program.
9. Lottery rationing of 10,000-number blocks in the 909 area code should continue.
IT IS ORDERED that:
1. It is not necessary at this time to implement a back-up area code split or overlay plan for the 909 area code.
2. The Director of Telecommunications Division is hereby delegated the task of reviewing the current lottery allotment and readjusting the allotment of 10,000 number blocks for the 909 area code between the lottery and the number pool as appropriate.
This order is effective today
Dated , at San Francisco, California.
