BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                          AB 818
                                                          Page  1

Date of Hearing:   May 19, 1999

              ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS 
                    Carole Migden, Chairwoman

           AB 818 (Knox) - As Amended: April 28, 1999 

Policy Committee:                              Utilities and  
Commerce     Vote:                             11-0 (Consent)

Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local  
Program:NoReimbursable:            

  SUMMARY  :

This bill requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to take  
several actions to address the proliferation of telephone area  
codes.  Specifically, this bill requires the PUC to:

1)Implement any measures available to efficiently allocate  
  telephone numbers within existing prefixes (the 3-digit number  
  after the area code).

2)Request delegation of additional authority from the Federal  
  Communication Commission (FCC) for telecommunications  
  numbering.

3)Prepare and submit an audit to the Legislature by July 2001 on  
  telephone number use rates based on information required to be  
  provided to the PUC by telephone companies.  

4)Take an interim measure, until phone number pooling is  
  implemented, to require phone number assignments to customers  
  be made first from prefixes that are more than 25 percent  
  used.

  FISCAL EFFECT  :

The PUC estimates first-year costs from the Utility  
Reimbursement Account of $235,000-including one-time costs of  
$150,000 for programming-and costs of $170,000 in the second and  
third years for three staff positions to collect and analyze  
data for the required audit and to review company performance  
for compliance with PUC rules on assignment of telephone  
numbers.








                                                          AB 818
                                                          Page  2


  COMMENTS  :

  Background  .  The author introduced this bill due to concerns  
over the proliferation of area codes in the last few years.  The  
number of area codes in California has doubled since 1991.  
Today, telephone numbers are only assigned in blocks of 10,000  
to the telecommunications service providers who request them.   
This is the case whether the service provider has 10 customers  
or 9,500 customers in the area served by that block of 10,000  
numbers. The federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 delegated  
full jurisdiction over "numbering " issues to FCC.    FCC has  
delegated to the states limited authority to implement area code  
relief by doing one of the following:  a) ordering an area code  
split;  b) ordering an overlay; or c) realignment of an existing  
area code boundary.  Last month the PUC filed two petitions with  
the FCC seeking additional delegation authority in order  
allocate number more efficiently and thus decrease the need to  
create new area codes in the state.

  Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)319-2081