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106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 765

To ensure the efficient allocation of telephone numbers.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

APRIL 12, 1999

Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mr. TORRICELLI) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,

Science, and Transportation

A BILL

To ensure the efficient allocation of telephone numbers.

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

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

4 Congress makes the following findings:

5 (1) The premature exhaustion of telephone area

6 codes causes economic dislocation for businesses and

7 unnecessary inconvenience for households.

8 (2) The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Pub9 lic Law 104–104) was enacted with the objective of

10 facilitating the development of competitive markets

11 in telecommunications services. The efficient alloca-
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1 tion of telephone numbers would further the achieve2 ment of that objective.

3 (3) The technology and procedures for the effi4 cient allocation of telephone numbers are currently

5 under development and should be available in 2 to

6 3 years.

7 (4) The combination of rapid growth in com8 petition for telecommunication services and the inef9 ficient allocation of numbering resources devoted to

10 such services will result in the creation of scores of

11 new telephone area codes, almost all of which will

12 become wholly unnecessary once procedures for the

13 efficient allocation of telephone numbers are in

14 place.

15 (5) The premature exhaustion of telephone area

16 codes can be prevented by measures to conserve the

17 allocation of so-called central office codes.

18 (6) State regulatory authorities have the inter19 est and capability to tailor mechanisms to conserve

20 telephone numbers to the needs of the telecommuni21 cations markets.

22 (7) Mechanisms for the conservation of tele23 phone numbers can be implemented without imped24 ing competition for telecommunications services.
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1 SEC. 2. EFFICIENT ALLOCATION OF TELEPHONE NUMBERS.

2 (a) PLAN.—Not later than December 31, 2000, the

3 Federal Communications Commission shall develop and

4 implement a plan for the efficient allocation of telephone

5 numbers.

6 (b) ELEMENTS.—The plan under subsection (a)

7 shall—

8 (1) include mechanisms to ensure full port9 ability of telephone numbers;

10 (2) provide for full sharing of unassigned tele11 phone numbers among telecommunications carriers;

12 and

13 (3) take into account any telecommunications

14 technology widely available as of December 31,

15 2000, that requires a telephone number.

16 (c) DELEGATION OF NUMBERING JURISDICTION.—

17 Until the Commission has fully implemented the plan re18 quired by subsection (a), the Commission shall, upon the

19 request of a State commission, delegate to the State com20 mission the jurisdiction of the Commission over tele21 communications numbering with respect to the State

22 under section 251(e)(1) of the Communications Act of

23 1934 (47 U.S.C. 251(e)(1)) to the extent that such delega24 tion will permit the State commission to implement meas25 ures to conserve telephone numbers, including measures

26 as follows:
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1 (1) To establish minimum use and so-called

2 ‘‘fill’’ rate requirements for central office codes.

3 (2) To conduct audits of the use of telephone

4 numbers and central office codes.

5 (3) To require telecommunications carriers to

6 return unused or underused central office codes and

7 to return central office codes that have been ob8 tained in a manner contrary to Federal or State

9 numbering guidelines or protocols.

10 (4) To establish individual number pooling,

11 mandatory 1000-block pooling, and interim unas12 signed number porting.

13 (5) To ration central office codes.

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