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NEWS RELEASE
Maine Public Utilities Commission
242 State Street
Augusta, Maine 04333-0018
web site: http://www.state.me.us/mpuc/
CONTACT: Phil Lindley, (207) 287-1598, phil.lindley@maine.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 1998
Maine Public Utilities Commission Opens
Investigation Into Need for New Area Code
Today the Maine Public Utilities Commission opens an investigation into the need for a new area code in Maine. A recent report on the use of telephone numbers in Maine projects that competing telephone companies will have claimed all available numbers in the 207 area code by the third quarter of 2000. Because the process for implementing a new area code takes approximately two years, the Commission decided to open the investigation now in order to reach a decision by the end of this year. In its action today, the Commission initiated two efforts: one designed to ensure that all possible steps are taken to delay the need for a new area code; and one to ensure that, when and if that need materializes, the new code is added in a way that minimizes cost and inconvenience to Maine's consumers.
The likely need for a new area code is driven by the fact that the 207 area code is running out of prefixes, the first three numbers of your telephone number, termed "central office codes." There are a number of reasons for the demand for new numbers. They include a strong economy and a high demand for new telecommunications services. The growing number of cellular phones, home businesses, modems, teen lines, faxes, alarm systems and pagers have all added to the demand for telephone lines and numbers. The most important reason for rapid use of prefixes is the development of competition in the local marketplace.
Lockheed Martin, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), expects an increase in requests for central office codes or telephone numbers. Each of the competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), wireless carriers, and paging companies is expected to request new numbers to serve its customers. Indeed, it is the push toward local competition that has caused NANPA to adjust its area code exhaust forecast for Maine from 2012 (in its 1996 forecast) to the third quarter of 2000 (in 1998), despite the fact that there are currently at least 7 million unused numbers in the 207 area code.
Part of the reason for the rapid acceleration of the forecast is a technological requirement that central office codes be assigned in blocks of 10,000 numbers. Thus, even if a carrier only needs 500 numbers, it must request a block of 10,000.
Further complicating matters, there are approximately 256 rate centers in Maine. (Rate center lines are drawn to indicate where a local call becomes a toll call.) Numbers are allocated to carriers on a rate center basis -- a carrier wishing to serve a single rate center must request a block of 10,000 numbers. Thus, if a carrier wishes to serve every rate center in Maine, it must request 2,560,000 numbers. Given the fact that there are over 750,000 active numbers in Maine at this time, such a request would clearly waste numbering resources; it would be impossible for a carrier to utilize even 27% of its allocated numbers even if it won over every customer in the state.
The PUC investigation will follow two parallel tracks. First, Track One will seek to establish a number conservation plan designed to delay the need for a new area code in Maine. The Commission will convene an industry task force to examine various conservation measures and assist the Commission in formulating its number conservation plan. Track Two will address the merits of the Area Code Relief Plan submitted by NANPA on behalf of the Maine telecommunications industry.
In Track Two the Commission will determine whether the new area code (when and if one is needed) will be implemented through an area code geographic "split" or an "overlay." Splits and overlays are the two major methods of adding numbers. Splits require all customers in one portion of a geographic area to receive a new area code, while leaving the existing area code in the balance of the state. Overlays require only newcomers to use a new area code, while current residents and businesses keep the old one. The overlaid code covers the same territory as the old area code. Splits, therefore, require customers in the "new" code area to change their phone number (stationary, business cards, advertising, etc.) while an overlay requires everyone to dial at least ten digits for all calls, including local calls. The industry Area Code Relief Plan recommends an overlay area code.
There are measures which the Commission and the industry can take to slow the allocation of numbers without chilling the advent of local competition. The Commission believes it is imperative that such measures be implemented as soon as possible if there is to be any hope of forestalling the implementation of a new area code in the near future.
To ensure that conservation measures begin as soon as possible, a Technical Conference will be held at 9:00 a.m., on October 1, 1998, in the Commission's Hearing Room. Interested parties to this proceeding should attend and be prepared to discuss in detail conservation methods. The Commission intends to create an Industry Task Force to develop an operational protocol for wireline and wireless carriers governing future treatment of all unused 1,000-line number blocks and to explore other number conservation methods, such as number pooling and number portability.
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