Thursday, February 2, 2012

As expected, FCC Commissioners on Tuesday adopted the Lifeline Reform Order. Read our previous blog entry for reform details.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

NANPA has notified service providers to prepare their networks for code assignments in the 878 NPA.

The Pennsylvania 724 NPA is nearing exhaust of NXX codes. Only five codes remain available for assignment. Once exhausted, NANPA will begin assigning central office codes in the 878 NPA, per Planning Letter 222 (NPA 878 to Overlay NPAs 412 and 724).

Central office codes from the 878 NPA will not be assigned in the 412 area until the 412 NPA is exhausted.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

AT&T has increased Subscriber Line Charges (SLC) again in January. Tele-Tech researchers report that almost all states had an increase in residential and business rates. We blogged back in October that AT&T had increased rates in just nine states.

Questions about these increases can be sent to custserv@telecomdb.com.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

A draft order to reform Lifeline is expected to be in the hands of FCC Commissioners this week, after Chairman Julius Genachowski announced details of the order at a speech Monday. Genachowski has been one of the staunchest critics of Lifeline, a Universal Service Fund (USF) program that provides discounted monthly service for low income customers.

Following the directive of USF reform, Lifeline will also transition to supporting broadband service rather than the traditional telephone.

Fraud and abuse will be controlled by conducting independent audits every two years, establishing national eligibility criteria and creating a National Lifeline Accountability Database to prevent multiple carriers from receiving support for the same subscriber;

The FCC has been taking steps this past year to reform Lifeline. In June 2011, the Commission tightened rules to prevent multiple carriers from receiving compensation for serving the same subscriber. An effort to screen duplicative service in 12 states has already identified 200,000 ineligible accounts; and the program is expected to expand to other states this year.

Genachowski said the proposed reforms will save the program up to $2 billion over the next few years. A Commission vote is tentatively scheduled for January 31.

Monday, January 9, 2012

NANPA has updated previous Planning Letter 419 by adding MTS Allstream (CLEC) to the list of Test Number providers for NPA 431.

The 431 area code provides relief for the 204 NPA serving Manitoba, Canada. The distributed overlay will require residents to dial 10-digits once the permissive dialing period ends.

Key implementation dates are:

04/30/2012 – Test numbers become available
06/03/2012 – Central office codes in new NPA become available
07/29/2012 – Permissive dialing period begins
11/03/2012 – Mandatory 10-digit dialing begins

For test numbers and a map of the affected area, go to www.nanpa.com.

The FCC has proposed increasing the first quarter universal service contribution factor to 17.9 percent. A Public Notice released December 14 projects demand for service will exceed collected revenues. Projected revenues for the first quarter of 2012 are $16.609 billion, about $72 billion below the revenue base for the last quarter of 2011.

The newly proposed rate is the highest on record. One year ago, the contribution factor was 15.5 percent.

If the Commission does not take any action within 14 days of release of the Public Notice, the new rate will become effective.

Click here to read the notice.

Tele-Tech’s V&H look-up is still available for use, free of charge. It’s now located on the Products page of our new website. You can search by NPA and NXX, State and City or by LATA. It’s great for checking which NPA-NXXs are assigned to a given rate center, what rate center a particular NPA-NXX is in or what area codes are in a specific state.

Like our new website? Don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook, too! You can also find us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Industry Numbering Committee (INC) has designated the 566 NPA as the next 5YY NPA for Personal Communications Services (PCS).

The 5YY resource is projected to exhaust in early 2012. As of December 8, there were 61 5YY NXXs available for assignment. NANPA has assigned 757 codes since the beginning of the year.

An effective date for the 566 NPA has yet to be announced. NANPA will continue to send updates on the current supply of 500, 533 and 544 NXXs.

For more information, go to www.nanpa.com

The Universal Service Fund (USF) and Intercarrier Compensation (ICC) Reform Order becomes effective December 29, 2011, after being published in the Federal Register November 29. Commissioners adopted the new rules in late October.

While portions of the new rules go into effect soon, there are many other details to iron out; as the FCC also issued a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM).

Here we highlight a few key points regarding USF and ICC reform, along with details regarding the FNPRM.

1. Universal Service

• Establish a broadband-focused Connect America Fund (CAF), with an annual budget of $4.5 billion. Eligible telecommunications carriers must offer both voice and broadband services.
• Create a separate Mobility Fund focusing on mobile broadband.
• Freeze all existing legacy high-cost support to price cap carriers as broadband build-out begins in early 2012.
• No CAF support where unsubsidized competitors already offer qualifying broadband service.

2. Intercarrier Compensation

• Address access stimulation by requiring, in general, competitive carriers and rate-of-return incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs) to refile their interstate switched access tariffs at lower rates, if certain conditions are met.
• Address phantom traffic by requiring providers to include the calling party’s telephone number in all call signaling; with intermediate carriers required to pass this signaling information, unaltered, to the next provider in a call path.
• Adopt a national bill-and-keep framework as the ultimate end state for all telecommunications traffic exchanged with a LEC.
• Reduce terminating switched access rates through a gradual, multi-year transition.

o Carriers must cap most ICC rates as of the effective date of the order.

o To reduce the disparity between intrastate and interstate terminating end office rates, carriers must bring these rates to parity within two steps by July 2013.
o Carriers must reduce their termination (and for some carriers also transport) rates to bill-and-keep, within six years for price cap carriers and nine for rate-of-return carriers.

• Transition Interconnected VoIP traffic to a bill-and-keep framework.

o VoIP service providers that are interconnected with the PSTN will be required to pay applicable interstate access or reciprocal compensation charges in the interim.

• Allow incumbent telephone companies to charge a limited monthly Access Recovery Charge (ARC) on wireline telephone service to offset declining ICC revenue.

o $0.50 per month maximum for residential and small business customers.
o $1.00 per line maximum for multi-line businesses.

3. Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

Comments are sought on the following issues:

• Structure and operational details for the competitive bidding mechanism.
• Transitioning rate-of-return carriers to a broadband-focused CAF mechanism.
• Reducing the interstate rate-of-return from its current level of 11.25 percent.
• Structure and operational details for the Mobility Fund, including proper distribution methodology, eligible geographic areas and providers and public interest obligations.
• Reassessing existing subscriber line charges (SLCs) to determine whether those charges are set at appropriate levels.

Comments on the universal service/CAF-related issues are due January 18; replies due February 17. Comments on the ICC and interconnection-related issues are due February 24; replies due March 30.

Tele-Tech will monitor the impact of this massive regulatory overhaul on our clients, including our business itself. How will this impact you? Leave a comment below or send it to krusso@telecomdb.com.

According to news service Reuters, AT&T heads to trial February 13, 2012 to argue its case to buy T-Mobile. The Department of Justice in August filed an antitrust lawsuit to stop the acquisition.

The proposed $39 billion purchase would have merged two of the four largest wireless service providers in the country. Both companies compete in 97 of the largest 100 cellular markets.

In a press release, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said, “The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile would result in tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services.”

The FCC is still completing its review.