STATE OF CALIFORNIA ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor

PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

505 VAN NESS AVENUE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102-3298

August 25, 2004 Agenda ID# 3856

Alternate to Agenda ID #3743

09/23/2004

TO: PARTIES OF RECORD IN RULEMAKING 95-04-043, IVESTIGATION 95-04-044

Enclosed is the Alternate Draft Decision of Commissioner Lynch to the Draft Decision of Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Pulsifer on August 24, 2004.

When the Commission acts on the draft or alternate decision, it may adopt all or part of it as written, amend or modify it, or set aside and prepare its own decision. Only when the Commission acts does the decision become binding on the parties.

Public Utilities Code Section 311(e) requires that an alternate to a draft decision be served on all parties, and be subject to public review and comment prior to a vote of the Commission. Rule 77.6(d) provides that comments on the alternate draft decision be filed at least seven days before the Commission meeting.

Comments on the alternate decision must be filed and served September 9, 2004. Reply comments are due September 16, 2004.

Pursuant to Rule 77.3 comments shall not exceed 15 pages. Finally, comments must be served separately on the ALJ and the assigned Commissioner, and for that purpose I suggest hand delivery, overnight mail, or other expeditious method of service. Please also provide an electronic copy of the comments and reply comments to Cheryl Cox at cxc@cpuc.ca.gov.

Angela K. Minkin, Chief

Administrative Law Judge

ANG:mel

Attachment

COM/LYN/cxc/mel ALTERNATE DRAFT

Agenda ID#3856

Alternate to Agenda ID# 3743

09/23/2004

Decision ALTERNATE DRAFT DECISION OF COMMISSIONER LYNCH

(Mailed 08/25/2004)

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)

O P I N I O N

I. Summary

Substantial telephone numbers are still available in the 310 area code to meet both customer and telephone carrier needs. The 310 area code still has well over two million available and unused numbers yet only needs 363,000 numbers or fewer every six months based on the recent history of customer's actual needs. Because of number conservation, the 310 has 146 more telephone numbers available today for assignment than it did when the Commission last considered a split. Accordingly, it is not necessary at this time to split the 310 area code by implementing the back-up area code split plan adopted in Decision (D.) 00-09-073.

Due to two recent conservation measures implemented in the 310 area code in the past year, an increased quantity of blocks¹ of telephone numbers have been returned to the 310 number pool.² Additionally, conservation efforts have in the past few years increased the number of blocks in the 310 pool that are available to all carriers. More blocks of numbers currently exist in both the 310 NXX code³ reserves and the 310 number pool than when the Commission voted last October not to split the area code. Additionally, rate centers have access to sufficient telephone numbers to meet carrier needs. Fluctuations in block supplies should not be perceived as a sign of exhaust. By their very nature, rate centers have blocks of numbers flowing in and out as they are needed. Moreover, carriers have excess blocks in their Accordingly, prior to imposing the burden of an area code split on businesses and families in the 310 area code, recent conservation measures should be fully evaluated and additional conservation measures should be explored that will continue to promote the effective use of telephone numbers in the 310 area code.

First, the Commission should evaluate the success of wireless local number portability (LNP) to determine its current and future impact on the availability of numbers. Additionally, the Commission should build on the foundation of past conservation successes by pursuing further conservation measures, including (1) set clear and relevant criteria for carrier six-month inventories based on actual historical use of numbers; (2) determine ways to access the hundreds of thousands of available telephone numbers now stranded in carrier inventories; (3) develop a more appropriate methodology of forecasting exhaust in the 310 area code to more accurately reflect the way in which telephone numbers are now distributed to carriers in the 310 area code. Taking a proactive stance in more efficiently managing telephone numbers will not only extend the life of the 310 and all other area codes, but such actions will make telephone numbers competitively available to all carriers by maximizing blocks of numbers that are available in the area code number pool. Therefore, the Commission staff is directed to study and explore ways in which further conservation action can be taken. The Commission should also closely monitor the additional need for telephone numbers in the 310 area code to assure that telephone number supplies continue to be sufficient for competitive service.

² Thousand-block number pooling, implemented by FCC Order 00-104, is the process of distributing numbers in an area code from a pooling administrator to telephone carriers by breaking up the 10,000 numbers in an NXX code - how telephone numbers were traditionally distributed - into ten sequential blocks of 1,000 numbers each. Telephone numbers are then allocated in thousand-block increments to a different service provider - and possibly a different switch - within the same rate center. All 10,000 numbers available in the NXX are allocated within one rate center, but can be allocated to multiple service providers in thousand-number blocks, instead of only to one particular service provider.