I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2357 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to facilitate number portability 

in order to increase consumer choice of voice service provider. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 12, 2009 

Mrs. BONO MACK introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to facilitate 

number portability in order to increase consumer choice 

of voice service provider. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Same Number Act of 

5 2009’’. 

6 SEC. 2. VOICE SERVICE NUMBER PORTABILITY. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title VII of the Communications 

8 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) is amended by insert9 ing after section 714 the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 715. NUMBER PORTABILITY. 

2 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—A provider of voice services has 

3 the duty to provide, to the extent technically feasible, num4 ber portability in accordance with requirements prescribed 

5 by the Commission. 

6 ‘‘(b) STANDARDS.— 

7 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Within 60 days after the 

8 date of enactment of the Same Number Act of 2009, 

9 to facilitate consumer choice among voice service 

10 providers the Commission shall adopt a report and 

11 order in the rulemaking proceeding considering an 

12 intermodal porting interval (WT Docket 07–243, et 

13 al. (released November 7, 2007)) to establish num14 ber portability performance standards for voice serv15 ice providers that— 

16 ‘‘(A) adopts a porting interval for wireline17 to-wireline and intermodal simple port requests 

18 that is no greater than the tentative conclusion 

19 regarding such interval proposed by the Com20 mission in such proceeding; 

21 ‘‘(B) prohibit the porting-out provider 

22 from deactivating and removing a number from 

23 its switch for at least 48 hours after the sched24 uled port request is completed; and 

25 ‘‘(C) encourage the reasonable automation 

26 of the porting process. 


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1 ‘‘(2) STREAMLINED PORTING PROCESS.— 

2 ‘‘(A) DEVELOPMENT OF REQUIRE3 MENTS.—Not later than 45 days after such 

4 date of enactment, the Commission shall direct 

5 the North American Numbering Council to de6 velop a streamlined and standardized number 

7 porting process and report back to the Commis8 sion within 180 days after the Council receives 

9 such direction. Such process shall— 

10 ‘‘(i) include the establishment of a 

11 uniform set of provisioning fields that is 

12 the minimum number of fields necessary to 

13 accomplish a port; and 

14 ‘‘(ii) prohibit a porting-out voice serv15 ice provider from imposing additional pro16 visioning fields on the porting-in voice 

17 service provider. 

18 ‘‘(B) ADOPTION BY COMMISSION.—Not 

19 later than 45 days after the Commission re20 ceives the report required by subparagraph (A), 

21 the Commission shall codify the number porting 

22 process developed by the North American Num23 bering Council as a requirement in its rules. 

24 The Commission may thereafter prescribe such 

25 modifications to such number porting process 


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1 as the Commission determines, after providing 

2 notice and opportunity for public comment, nec3 essary to streamline porting. 

4 ‘‘(3) FLEXIBILITY.—In adopting performance 

5 standards under paragraph (1), the Commission 

6 may— 

7 ‘‘(A) take into account differences between 

8 simple and complex ports; and 

9 ‘‘(B) grant a waiver of such standards for 

10 any provider or class of providers that can show 

11 that such standards would result in unreason12 able compliance costs for that provider or class, 

13 except that any such waiver shall be of limited 

14 duration. 

15 ‘‘(4) PUBLIC ACCESS TO TIMEFRAMES.—The 

16 Commission shall make available to the public on its 

17 Internet website any standard timeframes estab18 lished by the Commission under paragraph (1). 

19 ‘‘(c) PORTING REPORTING.— 

20 ‘‘(1) COMMISSION.—Beginning 1 year after the 

21 date on which the Commission issues the final rule 

22 under subsection (b), the Commission shall submit a 

23 report each year to the Senate Committee on Com24 merce, Science, and Transportation and the House 

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1 merce on the effectiveness and efficiency of the num2 ber portability performance standards for voice serv3 ice providers established under this section. 

4 ‘‘(2) SUNSET.—The requirements of this sub5 section shall cease to apply 60 months after the date 

6 on which the Commission issues such final rule. 

7 ‘‘(d) NUMBERING ADMINISTRATION.— 

8 ‘‘(1) COMMISSION AUTHORITY AND JURISDIC9 TION.—The Commission shall designate 1 or more 

10 impartial entities to administer telecommunications 

11 and voice service numbering and to ensure that 

12 numbers are available on an equitable basis. The 

13 Commission has exclusive jurisdiction of those por14 tions of the North American Numbering Plan that 

15 pertain to the United States. Nothing in this sub16 section precludes the Commission from delegating to 

17 State Commission or other entities all or a portion 

18 of such jurisdiction. 

19 ‘‘(2) COSTS.—The costs of establishing num20 bering administration arrangements and number 

21 portability shall be borne by all voice service pro22 viders on a competitively neutral basis, as deter23 mined by the Commission. 

24 ‘‘(3) UNIVERSAL EMERGENCY TELEPHONE

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1 ty to which the Commission has delegated authority 

2 under this subsection shall designate 9–1–1 as the 

3 universal emergency telephone number within the 

4 United States for reporting an emergency to appro5 priate authorities and requesting assistance. The 

6 designation shall apply to both wireline and wireless 

7 telephone service. 

8 ‘‘(e) VOICE SERVICE DEFINED.—In this section, the 

9 term ‘voice service’ means— 

10 ‘‘(1) a telecommunications service; or 

11 ‘‘(2) any service that is not a telecommuni12 cations service, but that otherwise is an IP-enabled 

13 voice service as defined in section 9.3 of the Com14 mission’s regulations (47 CFR 9.3), as those regula15 tions may be amended by the Commission from time 

16 to time.’’. 

17 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 251 of the 

18 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 251) is amend19 ed— 

20 (1) by striking subsection (b)(2) and redesig21 nating paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) of subsection (b) 

22 as paragraphs (2), (3), and (4), respectively; and 


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1 (2) by striking subsection (e) and redesignating 

2 subsections (f), (g), (h), and (i) as subsections (e), 

3 (f), (g), and (h), respectively. 

Æ 


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