Tele-Tech Updates Newsletter

FCC Bans Exclusive Telephone Service Deals

Apartment and condominium residents recently received some good news from the Federal Communications Commission. A new ruling states that they will have to be allowed a choice among telephone providers serving their area.

The FCC unanimously passed an order prohibiting telecommunications companies from signing exclusive deals with multi-unit buildings that are primarily residential. It also throws out existing exclusive contracts.

This action follows the FCC's move last fall to ban exclusive deals for cable and Internet TV companies in apartment buildings.

Commissioners said the ruling will provide consistency across various communications platforms and encourage competition among providers. They stated in a release that exclusive contracts between carriers and apartment-building owners "hurt consumers and harm competition, with little evidence of countervailing benefits."

"All consumers, regardless of where they live, should be able to enjoy the benefits of competition," said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Telephone companies have shown support for the FCC's ban on exclusive phone and TV deals, stating they are good for competition, but the cable industry balked at the FCC's ban on deals for its industry. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association asked a federal court last December to halt the provision of the rules that throws out existing exclusive contracts. They argue the rule contradicts a 2003 order that seemed to encourage such arrangements.

Query & Report Interface Added to Localizer

Attention Localizer Customers: Get even more from your Localizer! Now your local calling area data can do more than seamlessly interface with your mediation, billing, or other software. Our new user interface enables Localizer subscribers to run queries against the data, providing results in an easy to read, printable, and exportable format.

Choose from several reports included with the software, such as:

Enter an originating NPA-NXX of your choice and the software returns the NPA-NXXs in the local calling area of that point.
Determine the inbound local calling area for a specific point by entering an NPA-NXX. The software returns all originating NPA-NXXs that can call into that number as a local connection. This is useful in determining the point-of-presence for specific customers to call into when they access your network.

Other queries and reports come already configured into the software, and users can create custom queries to answer their most pressing questions about local calling areas.

Once a query's results are displayed, they can be searched for specific NPA-NXXs, printed, or exported into a variety of formats including MS Excel, MS Word, PDF, jpeg, or html.

For more information, please contact Kimberly Russo at krusso@telecomdb.com or 800-433-6181 x7103.

NPA Updates

Overlay for 304 in West Virginia
An all-services overlay will be implemented in the 304 area code of West Virginia. The area code is expected to exhaust in the fourth quarter of 2008. The new 681 area code will serve the same area currently served by the existing 304 NPA.

Implementation of the overlay will start on July 26, 2008 with the start of permissive 7-digit or 10-digit dialing. The permissive dialing period will end and mandatory 10-digit dialing will begin on Feb. 28, 2009.

500 NPA Update
In 2007, NANPA assigned 147 new non-geographic, 500-NXX codes used
for "follow me" personal communication services and reclaimed a total of five codes. As of Dec. 31, 2007, there were 713 assigned 500-NXX codes and 78 available for assignment. On Jan. 3, 2008, NANPA announced that NPA 533 had been assigned to relieve the NPA 500.

California 760 NPA
On March 11, 2008, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)-Administrative Law Judge issued a draft decision for a geographic split as the relief method for the 760 NPA. The new 442 NPA will serve the western portion of the existing 760 NPA and the remaining eastern and northern portion will retain 760. A final decision could come as early as mid-April.

California 818 NPA
On March 24, 2008, the CPUC-Administrative Law Judge issued a draft decision for an all-services overlay as the relief method for the 818 NPA. The new 747 NPA will serve the existing 818 NPA.

Relief for NY 315 Area Code
The New York State Public Service Commission recently announced the release of the Staff White Paper that outlines several options for adding a second area code to the current 315 area code in central and north-central NY State. The area code is projected to deplete by late 2010.

A geographic split would divide the existing area code into two geographic areas, one retaining the old code and one receiving the new.

An overlay would assign a new area code to the existing 315 geographic area.

Comments may be made by phone at 1-800-335-2120 or online at www.dps.state.ny.us.

Mandatory Area Code Change in Louisiana
Beginning May 1, 2008, communities in Lower Plaquemines Parish will complete the change from area code 985 to the new area code 504, marking the end of the nine-month transition period.