Decision DRAFT DECISION OF ALJ PULSIFER (Mailed 6/20/2000)

BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Order Instituting Rulemaking on the Commission's Own Motion into Competition for Local Exchange Service	Rulemaking 95-04-043 (Filed April 26, 1995)
Order Instituting Investigation on the Commission's Own Motion into Competition for Local Exchange Service.	Investigation 95-04-044 (Filed April 26, 1995)

OPINION

By this decision, we continue the development of a statewide strategy to promote the efficient allocation of telephone numbering resources. The focus of this decision involves extending number conservation measures that have been adopted for the 310 Numbering Plan Area (NPA) to other NPAs within California. In Decision (D.) 99-09-067, we halted implementation of the 310/424 NPA overlay, and undertook to extend the life of the 310 NPA by promoting more efficient use of existing number resources as much as possible before authorizing the opening of a new area code.

The claims of code exhaustion in the 310 NPA were indicative of a much more fundamental problem in the way that number resources had been traditionally allocated. Under the traditional system, each local carrier obtains a separate NXX code for each rate center in which service is offered. This system was designed for an era when one monopoly carrier provided local service within a franchised territory. Since local competition began in California in 1995, multiple carriers now demand their own NXX code in each rate center. At the same time, rapid growth in the wireless industry and other communications services also places greater demand on finite numbering resources. The result has been an unprecedented acceleration in the opening of new area codes since the late 1990s.

Since the adoption of D.99-09-067, we have continued implementing the strategies identified in that decision to extend the life of the 310 NPA by reforming the traditional number allocation system to yield more efficient use of existing numbering resources. In particular, we issued D.99-11-027 and D.00-03-054 implementing criteria relating to carriers' demand forecasts and number utilization rates for the 310 NPA. We initially limited these measures only to the 310 NPA in view of the priority placed on the numbering crisis facing that NPA. Yet, since similar number allocation problems are facing NPAs throughout the state, we now consider extending those conservation measures to apply as part of an overall statewide numbering policy. Our goal is to stem the unnecessary proliferation of new area codes while making efficient use of existing numbering resources throughout California. In implementing the extension of these rules, we take into account the limitations imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with respect to its delegation of authority in this area.

I. Background

On April 13, 2000, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Ruling was issued soliciting comments on extending the number conservation criteria adopted in D.99-11-027 and D.00-03-054 currently applicable only to the 310 NPA to apply to additional NPAs or to the entire state. The ALJ's Ruling sought comment on the extension of the following criteria:

1. Procedures adopted in D.99-11-027 for the return of NXX codes and for the allocation of codes based on "imminent exhaust criteria."

2. Sequential number assignment and minimum usage or fill rate requirements to obtain additional numbering resources. (Adopted in D.00-03-054.)

A. Return of Codes

In D.99-11-027, the California Public Utilities Commission (Commission) adopted procedures for the return of unused NXX codes, and for allocation of codes in the 310 NPA based on imminent exhaust criteria. Specifically, with regard to return of codes, the decision required the return to the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) of any previously assigned codes that were not placed in service within six months of the assignment effective date. Codes assigned after the effective date of D.99-11-027 had to be placed in service within three months of assignment date or the effective date of the decision (whichever was later), unless technical difficulties exist beyond the carrier's control.

B. Imminent Exhaust Criteria

The imminent exhaust criteria adopted by the Commission in D.99-11-027 (for the 310 NPA) requires a carrier requesting a code to meet several requirements. Separate criteria were established depending on whether the carrier is seeking an initial or a growth code. Under the criteria for an initial code, a carrier must document that it will be in operation and prepared to market service within the rate center within three months of its request. Under the criteria to obtain a growth code, the carrier must supply NANPA with a month-to-exhaust form that demonstrates that its numbers will exhaust within three months. The carrier must also supply NANPA with six months of historical utilization data, using the Industry Numbering Committee definitions of numbers in the assigned, reserved, administrative, aging, and available categories, and demonstrate to NANPA that it has legally enforceable written agreements for all numbers classified as reserved. Finally, the carrier must provide NANPA with documentation demonstrating that it has reduced its aging period to 60 days for residential telephone numbers and six months for business telephone numbers.

C. Minimum Fill Rates

In D.00-03-054, the Commission adopted minimum fill rates that must be met in the 310 NPA before any new NXX codes or number blocks can be requested. The Commission adopted a 75% fill rate, applied at the rate center level to all thousand number blocks held by a carrier. In calculating this fill rate, carriers are required to account for all number resources they hold. Reserved numbers may be considered as utilized only for a six-month period; after that, they must be counted as unassigned. The decision further provided that it would use the same definitions previously adopted in the number utilization study for the 310 NPA to define what constituted reserved, assigned, administrative and aging numbers. The 75% fill rate was also extended to non-local number portability (LNP) capable carriers as well as to other carriers, so that a non-LNP capable carrier must meet the 75% fill rate before obtaining an additional NXX code through the lottery.

D. Sequential Number Assignment

D.00-03-054 also adopted sequential number assignment criteria for the 310 NPA. All carriers were required to assign numbers in the 310 NPA in sequential thousand number blocks, moving to the next block only once a 75% fill rate in each block was obtained. To qualify for a new thousand-block, the carrier is required to show that it has achieved a minimum fill rate of 75% in each block. To obtain an additional NXX code a non-LNP capable carrier must show that a minimum 75% fill rate has been applied sequentially in each of the thousand-blocks comprising its NXX codes in a given rate center.

E. Jurisdictional Authority

In the FCC's Second Report and Order on Local Competition,¹ the FCC granted states the authority to resolve matters concerning the implementation of area codes. (47 C.F.R. § 52.19(a).) In response to a petition filed by this Commission, the FCC, in its September 15, 1999 order, granted the Commission certain additional interim authority to engage in number conservation activities. Specifically, the FCC's order permits California to:

1. Mandate thousand-block number pooling within different regions on a staggered schedule;

2. Require carriers to submit number utilization data;

3. Establish minimum number usage thresholds to qualify for number resources;

4. Reclaim unused and reserved NXX codes and portions of those codes;

5. Require sequential number assignments; and

6. Resolve claims of carriers requesting numbers outside the existing rationing procedures.

However, in granting the Commission additional authority to implement code conservation measures, the FCC stated:

Although we grant the California Commission interim authority to institute many of the optimization measures raised in its Petition, this grant will be superseded by forthcoming decisions in the Numbering Resource Optimization proceeding that will establish national guidelines, standards, and procedures for numbering optimization.²

On March 31, 2000, the FCC issued a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in its Numbering Resources Optimization (NRO) docket. The NRO Order adopts administrative and technical measures intended to

[P]romote more efficient allocation and use of NANP resources by tying a carrier's ability to obtain numbering resources more closely to its actual need for numbers to serve its customers.³

Among those measures are rules governing the allocation of initial and growth codes. For initial codes, the FCC requires carriers to submit "documented proof (1) the applicant is authorized to provide service in the area for which numbering resources are requested and (2) the applicant is or will be capable of providing service within 60 days of the numbering resources activation date."⁴ For growth codes, the FCC requires carriers to meet a nationwide rate center-based utilization threshold for non-pooling carriers beginning January 1, 2001.⁵

Thus, as we consider the prospects for extending the conservation provisions we have previously adopted for the 310 NPA, we do so subject to any applicable constraints imposed by the NRO Order.