The FCC Mon. partly granted the Cal. PUC’s request for an easing ...
The FCC Mon. partly granted the Cal. PUC’s request for an easing of the so-called “contamination threshold rule” for 1,000-block number pooling. The FCC’s rules require that service providers donate for pooling purposes any 1,000- blocks with 10% or…
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less contamination. Contamination arises when at least one telephone number within a block of phone numbers isn’t available for assignment to end users. The Cal. PUC wanted to raise the threshold to 25%, meaning pooling would be required for all blocks with 25% or less contamination. The FCC said the PUC hadn’t demonstrated justification for raising the contamination threshold throughout the state but did justify raising it in the 310 and 909 area codes on an interim basis. Such action will give the PUC more time to implement area code relief in those 2 codes, the FCC said. Pooling is used to conserve telephone numbers to avoid a shortage in a particular area code. Comr. Abernathy dissented in part, saying she shared the Commission’s desire to give flexibility to state commissions on numbering issues but felt that “granting an unconditional waiver in this case is inconsistent with the public interest.” She said she would have been willing to grant the request “if it were conditioned on prompt implementation of area code relief… Raising the contamination threshold is a Band-Aid that according to the North American Numbering Council will extend the life of those area codes by only 1 to 2 months… When the inevitable train wreck occurs, this Commission unfortunately will bear part of the blame.” Comr. Copps issued a concurring statement saying he didn’t think the decision went far enough in giving the state commissioners “the deference they deserve.” He said he would have preferred to grant the petition “in a less area code restricted fashion.” Copps said he also wished the Commission had acted more quickly: “I fear that we may have jeopardized the ability of the [PUC] to provide some of the relief sought, through the slow regulatory speed with which we resolved this matter.”