A report to California utility regulators recommended a telephone-number assignment strategy designed to delay implementation of new area codes.
The plan is seen as pro-competition, as newcomers-including cable operators-would have easier access to current area codes. Currently, new providers in area codes close to the exhaustion point-such as the 310 code in the San Fernando Valley suburbs of Los Angeles-must enter a lottery every other month.
If the proposal succeeds, it will have implications in other states that face the same problem.
The California plan was prompted by the 310 situation. On paper, available numbers appeared near exhaustion because telephone prefixes-referred to as NXX codes-are distributed to telephone companies in blocks of 10,000.
California now has 200 licensed telephony competitors, and each needs a block assignment whether it will have 900 customers or 10,000. In the 310 area code, only 15 blocks remain available for the lottery, according to the report.
In 1999, the state announced its intent to launch an area-code overlay, which would require all calls in that code to be dialed with 11 numbers. There was uproar from every sector: Competitors argued that customers would stick with incumbents, rather than taking new services with new codes, and local officials lobbied for exclusion from the overlay plan.
The California Public Utilities Commission suspended implementation last September, instead hiring a firm to determine how many numbers are actually in use.
The recent report stated that a new area code can be avoided if the state initiates a plan issuing numbers in 1,000-unit blocks and promoting number portability. In the 310 area, all current and potential wired competitors, including AT & T Broadband, have the ability to participate in number pooling. The exception is Level 3 Communications Inc.
Wireless companies are not fully number-portability-compatible, but according to the Federal Communications Commission, they don't have to be until 2003.
The PUC study said 3 million numbers remain in the 310 area code. Of those, 470,000 are in NXX blocks that are 90 percent unused, or "contaminated," in the parlance of competitors that want chunks of those dormant numbers.
Telecommunications staff members suggested several strategies for freeing up more numbers:
- Cut the period allowed for telephone companies to reserve numbers for administrative or other use from 18 months to 180 days.
- Put all special numbers (time, weather, etc.) in one block. Currently, the national directory-assistance number (555-1212) is the only number working in that NXX block, the report said.
- Instead of moving blocks with 10 percent or less contamination into the pool, raise the floor to 25 percent.
- Reduce the aging period (the time a number is out of service between users). The current periods vary by user, and the report suggested aging rates of 30 to 90 days for residential accounts. Business accounts would age 90 to 365 days.
The commission will debate the report, but members are under pressure from California Gov. Gray Davis to come up with a solution other than further area-code splits.
If the state retains its current number-assignment policy, there will be a need for 16 new area codes by the end of 2002, PUC staffers warned.
