WASHINGTON-If nothing is done to try to conserve telephone numbers, North America will run out of area codes and later phone numbers sometime between 2012 and 2019.
NeuStar Inc. told the North American Numbering Council last week that given the current assumed demand for numbers, North America will exhaust its supply of numbers in 2012. This number is extended out to 2019 using actual utilization averages rather than assumed demand, said John Manning, director of numbering services for NeuStar.
Actual utilization is less than assumed demand because some states, such as California, have implemented rationing plans.
The 2012-2019 projection does not take into account thousand-block number pooling which is being phased in by wireline carriers in some states and the top 100 metropolitan service areas. These are base numbers, said NANC Chairman John R. Hoffman of Sprint Communications.
“We are trying to understand the benefits of pooling,” said Hoffman.
NeuStar, as the North American Numbering Plan Administrator, will re-run the estimates using assumptions for pooling and report back estimates assuming pooling in September.
One of the pooling assumptions is that wireless carriers will implement pooling in 2003 and 2004 and that 10 percent more numbers could be available in areas where pooling has been implemented in 2005.
In addition to thousand-number block pooling, the Federal Communications Commission has mandated other number conservation measures and has delegated authority to a number of states to implement other measures to conserve numbers. The NeuStar estimates also did not take into account any of these actions.
” We are not doing nothing. We are doing everything,” said Hoffman.
Before a real estimate can be formulated, however, the NANPA needs actual number utilization numbers. To help with this, the FCC is requiring carriers to submit number data beginning Aug. 1. The problem with this date, many NANC members said, is that the electronic filing format for complying with this requirement will not be available until sometime after the deadline. Many carriers will not be able to comply with the deadline without the electronic format, Lori Messing told RCR. Messing is the director of numbering issues for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
NANC also briefly discussed the advantages and disadvantages of charging for telephone numbers. FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth has advocated charging for numbers possibly as a way to pay for universal service.
The enthusiasm for charging for numbers was “somewhat lukewarm at best. We have a number of concerns [about charging for numbers] … There were a lot more concerns than perceived advantages,” said Daniel F. Gonos, senior director of numbering regulatory affairs for Winstar Communications Inc.
Some of these issues include placing a value on numbers and whether charging for numbers would create a property right.
In another numbering matter, Sprint PCS is expected to shortly file a lawsuit so it can obtain additional numbers to serve the Beverly Hills, Calif., area code. Sprint averted a similar lawsuit last week in Michigan when it won the state’s number rationing lottery and was given access to the numbers it says it needs.
