BILL NUMBER: AB 818 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 28, 1999
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Knox
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Alquist, Briggs, Calderon, Cox,
Kuehl, Longville, Romero, and Washington)
FEBRUARY 24, 1999
An act to add Section 7934 Sections 7934,
7935, 7936, 7938, 7939, and 7940 to the Public Utilities Code,
relating to telecommunications.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 818, as amended, Knox. New area codes.
Existing federal law provides for a coordinator for California
area code relief. Existing law establishes a process for that
coordinator and providers, as defined, to develop an area code relief
plan, as prescribed. Existing federal regulations prohibit
an area code from being assigned based solely on the provision of a
specific type of telecommunications service or use of a particular
technology.
This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission
to preserve existing area codes for land-based telecommunications, to
ensure that retired telephone numbers within a given area code are
reestablished as usable numbers before new area codes are established
within a region, and to apply for a waiver of the existing federal
regulations described above, so that the commission may consider the
application of separate area codes for land-based telecommunication
services and non-land-based telecommunication services. The bill
would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2001, to submit
to the Legislature a report on the implementation of those
provisions.
The bill would prohibit the commission from establishing or
implementing any new area code until the commission either begins, as
new area codes become necessary, to apply separate new area codes
for land-based telecommunication services and non-land-based
telecommunications services such as cellular telephone and pager
services, if the commission receives a waiver of those existing
federal regulations from the Federal Communications Commission, or
the commission proposes, and the Legislature approves, a plan,
alternative to the use of technology-based area codes, as specified,
to alleviate the undue hardship currently experienced by
telecommunications customers caused by the creation of new area codes
to develop and implement any measures that it
determines to be available for telecommunications service providers
that possess telephone number prefixes to efficiently allocate
telephone numbers within those prefixes. The bill would require the
Public Utilities Commission to immediately request the Federal
Communications Commission to delegate to the state authority over
telecommunications under specified federal communications law, to the
extent that the delegation will permit the Public Utilities
Commission to implement specified measures. The bill would require
the Public Utilities Commission to request, and telecommunications
providers to provide, certain information on telephone number use.
The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to prepare and
submit to the Legislature a report on that information on or before
July 1, 2001. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission
to impose certain requirements on telephone number assignments
.
The bill would make related legislative findings and declarations.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
Consumer Area Code Relief Act of 1999.
SEC. 2. Section 7934 is added to the Public Utilities Code,
to read:
7934. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) The number of area codes in this state has more than doubled
since 1991.
(b) The proliferation of area codes has caused undue hardship on
citizens of this state, who have begun to be forced into new area
codes after years of having the same telephone number.
(c) That proliferation has substantially increased costs to
businesses, individuals, and government agencies.
(d) New area codes require the replacement of business cards and
letterhead stationery, and companies must use employee time
contacting their customers to ensure that those customers are able to
continue to reach the affected company.
(e) The proliferation of area codes has also reduced worker
productivity as employees begin using new and unfamiliar area codes.
(f) It is the policy of the Legislature that existing area
codes should be preserved for as long as possible.
(g) It is the further policy of the Legislature that the hardship
currently experienced by telecommunications customers as a result of
the creation of new area codes should be alleviated.
(h) For all of the reasons stated above, it is necessary for
the Public Utilities Commission to
commission, as a public agency, to take all possible measures to
protect area codes as a public resource, stop area code
proliferation , and review their existing practice of
establishing new area code regions and the creation of area code
overlays.
SEC. 3. Section 7934 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
7934. (a) The commission shall do all of the following:
(1) Preserve existing area codes for land-based telecommunications
whenever possible, for as long as possible.
(2) Ensure that any and all retired telephone numbers within a
given area code are reestablished as usable numbers before new area
codes are established within a region.
(3) Apply for a waiver of existing regulations adopted by the
Federal Communications Commission that prohibit an area code from
being assigned based solely on the provision of a specific type of
telecommunications service or the use of a particular technology (47
C.F.R. 52.19(c)(3)(1)), so that the commission may consider the
application of separate area codes for land-based telecommunication
services and non-land-based telecommunication services such as
cellular telephone and pager services.
(4) On or before January 1, 2001, submit to the Legislature a
report on the progress of the commission in the implementation of
this subdivision.
(b) The commission shall not establish or implement any new area
code until one of the following events occurs:
(1) If, after the commission receives a waiver from the Federal
Communications Commission as described in paragraph (3) of
subdivision (a), the commission begins, as new area codes become
necessary, to apply separate new area codes for land-based
telecommunication services and non-land-based services such as
cellular telephone and pager services.
(2) The commission proposes, and the Legislature approves, a plan,
alternative to the use of technology-based area codes, as described
in paragraph (1), to alleviate the undue hardship currently
experienced by telecommunications customers as a result of the
creation of new area codes.
SEC. 3. Section 7935 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
7935. The commission shall develop and implement any measures it
determines to be available for telecommunications service providers
that possess prefixes to efficiently allocate telephone numbers
within those prefixes.
SEC. 4. Section 7936 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
7936. The Public Utilities Commission shall immediately request
the Federal Communications Commission to delegate to the state
authority over telecommunications numbering under Section 251(e)(1)
of the Federal Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 251(e)(1)), to
the extent that the delegation will permit the Public Utilities
Commission to implement measures to conserve telephone numbers,
including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(a) Establishing the minimum use and available efficiency measures
for prefixes.
(b) Requiring telecommunications carriers to return unused or
underused prefixes and to return prefixes that have been obtained in
a manner contrary to federal or state numbering guidelines or
protocols.
(c) Establishing individual number pooling, mandatory pooling in
1000 telephone number blocks, and interim unassigned number porting.
7937. (a) On or before March 1, 2000, the commission shall
request from each telecommunications service provider doing business
in this state that possesses a telephone number prefix, or a portion
thereof, the specific telephone numbers and the quantities within the
possession of the provider, both used and unused.
(b) Notwithstanding Section 7550.5 of the Government Code, the
commission shall use the information obtained pursuant to subdivision
(a) and any other information required by the commission, to prepare
and submit to the Legislature, on or before, July 1, 2001, an audit
of telecommunications industry use rates.
7938. The commission shall require, as an interim measure until
the commission develops procedures for number pooling, that number
assignments made by telecommunications service providers to their
customers shall be made first from prefixes that are more than 25
percent used. A telecommunications service provider may assign
numbers from prefixes with less than 25 percent use only to the
extent necessary, if numbers from prefixes that are more than 25
percent used are not otherwise available.
7939. If the commission establishes a process to ensure that
telephone numbers can be allocated in blocks smaller than 10,000, the
commission shall require that a telecommunications service provider
return to the North American Numbering Plan Administrator blocks of
telephone numbers for reassignment, in a quantity determined by the
commission.
7940. A telecommunications service provider doing business in
this state that possesses one or more telephone number prefixes, or
portions thereof, shall provide to the commission, upon request, use
information pertaining to both used and unused prefixes, according to
any schedule established by the commission.