BILL NUMBER: AB 818 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 25, 1999
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 17, 1999
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 15, 1999
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 10, 1999
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 Sections 7934, 7935, 7936, 7937, 7938, 7939, and
7940 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to telecommunications,
and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 818, as amended, Knox. New area codes: telephone number
assignment.
(1) Existing federal law provides for a coordinator
an administrator for California area code
relief. Existing law establishes a process for that
coordinator administrator and providers, as
defined, to develop an area code relief plan, as prescribed.
This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to develop
and implement any measures that it determines to be available for
telephone corporations that possess telephone number prefixes to
efficiently allocate telephone numbers within those prefixes ,
as prescribed . The bill would prohibit the Public
Utilities Commission from authorizing or implementing any new area
code splits or overlays, except for the implementation of technology
specific area code overlays. 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 study on that information on or before
July 1, 2001. The bill would require the commission to
require the suspension of 10-digit dialing within specified area
codes. The bill would require, if authorized as
prescribed, telephone corporations to return blocks of telephone
numbers, as prescribed. The bill would require the Public
Utilities Commission to implement 1,000 telephone number
assignment, as prescribed, and to require telephone corporations to
return unused 1,000 telephone number blocks, as prescribed
direct the North American Numbering Plan Administrator to seek
the return of blocks of numbers smaller than 10,000, as prescribed,
and also to obtain specified information prior to addressing area
code relief, as prescribed .
The bill would make related legislative findings and declarations.
(2) The bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. 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
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 7935 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
7935. (a) The commission shall develop and implement any measures
it determines to be available for telephone corporations that
possess prefixes to efficiently allocate telephone numbers within
those prefixes. The commission shall consider the cost effectiveness
of these measures before requiring implementation. Among the
measures the commission shall consider are rate center
reduction consolidation, allocation of numbers in
blocks smaller than 10,000, and unassigned number porting.
(b) For the purpose of this section, in accordance with the North
American Numbering Plan, a telephone number consists of a three digit
area code or number plan area (NPA), a three digit prefix or NXX
code, and a four digit line number.
SEC. 4. Section 7936 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
7936. (a) Except as set forth in subdivision (b), the commission
may not authorize or implement any additional area code splits or
overlays.
(b) The commission shall immediately authorize and implement area
codes overlays for existing area codes that are exclusively dedicated
to commercial mobile radio service, paging, facsimile, and data
telephone numbers.
(c) As used in this section, the "commercial mobile radio service"
has the same meaning as the term "commercial mobile service," as
defined in subsection (d) of Section 332 of Title 47 of the United
States Code.
7936. The commission shall direct the North American Numbering
Plan Administrator to obtain utilization data for any area code for
which a relief plan is proposed, prior to adopting a plan for, or
setting a date for, relief.
SEC. 5. Section 7937 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
7937. (a) On or before March 1, 2000, the commission shall
request from each telephone corporation doing business in this state
that possesses one or more telephone number prefixes, or a portion
thereof, the specific telephone numbers and the quantities within the
possession of the provider, both in use and not in use. The
commission, for the purpose of this section, shall define the terms
"in use" and "not in use." The commission shall determine the
reporting requirements for the information provided to the commission
pursuant to Section 7940.
(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, a study
of telecommunications industry use rates. The commission
shall require 10-digit dialing within the "310" area code and the
"424" area code overlay to be suspended.
SEC. 6. Section 7938 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
7938. The commission shall require, as an interim measure until
the commission develops procedures for number pooling or adopts
utilization standards, that number assignments made by telephone
corporations to their customers shall be made first from prefixes
that are more than 25 percent in use. A telephone corporation 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 in use are not otherwise available.
SEC. 7. Section 7939 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
7939. (a) The commission shall implement 1,000 telephone
number block assignments as soon as technically feasible. The
commission shall order telephone corporations to request telephone
numbers in 1,000 number blocks.
(b) The commission shall order telephone corporations to return
unused 1,000 telephone number blocks to the North American Numbering
Plan Administrator. The commission, for the purposes of this
section, shall define "unused."
(a) If the commission or an authorized federal agency establishes
a process to ensure that telephone numbers can be allocated in blocks
smaller than 10,000, the commission shall require that a telephone
corporation return to the North American Numbering Plan Administrator
blocks of telephone numbers for reassignment, in a quantity
determined by the commission.
(b) The commission shall direct the North American Numbering Plan
Administrator to seek the return of blocks of numbers smaller than
10,000 not in use. The commission, for purposes of this section,
shall define "not in use."
SEC. 8. Section 7940 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
7940. A telephone corporation doing business in this state that
possesses one or more telephone number prefixes, or portions thereof,
shall provide to the commission or its agent , upon
request, use information pertaining to both those prefixes in use and
those prefixes not in use, according to any schedule established by
the commission.
SEC. 9. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to address as soon as possible the rapid proliferation of
new area codes, including the imposition of planned area code
overlays, which causes undue hardship to the citizens of this state,
it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.