Regulators To Preserve Phone Numbers

Friday, December 8th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” There is a limitless supply of numbers but not the precious seven- and 10-digit variety that consumers use to dial homes, cell phones, fax machines and pagers.

Faced with a shrinking supply, the government is working to more efficiently use and conserve the billions of numbers in its pool. But regulators say they will steer clear for now of one drastic measure: forcing consumers nationwide to dial 10 digits to call a neighbor in the same area code.

The demand for numbers and proliferation of new area codes has taken a toll on the current system which, left on its own, could expire in the next 10 years.

Seeking to push back this date by several decades, the Federal Communications Commission implemented measures Thursday to make better use of the 2 billion numbers already allocated and several billion more still untapped.

Under the commission's action, telecommunications companies must use up 60 percent of the numbers they have in an area before requesting additional supplies. That threshold would rise to 75 percent over three years.

The FCC also proposed studying the legal and economic issues of charging phone companies for numbers â€” which they now get for free. Several commissioners said that ultimately, a market solution will be needed to make the most efficient use of the numbers.

``The price is too low for the market,'' said Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. ``We give them away. There is no limitation and what we have is a mess.''

That could force carriers to ensure they have exhausted their supply before requesting new numbers. Industry officials say that if they are charged a fee for numbers, that cost could end up being passed on to consumers.

The FCC will examine whether it has the authority to set a fee and how such a pricing structure would work, officials said.

The agency has focused on making the existing distribution and use of numbers more efficient. Earlier this year, the FCC moved to allocating phone numbers to local carriers in blocks of 1,000. The problem with the old system â€” which gave carrier 10,000 numbers at a time â€” was that if a company had only 100 customers in a given region, the remaining 9,900 numbers of the block were tied up.

The FCC hopes that these preservation tools will make it possible to avoid more extreme measures, such as adding new numbers or mandating that consumers nationwide dial area codes even for local calls. That would have required a consumer to dial 10 digits to reach someone within the same area code.

The commission staff has advised against adopting such a nationwide policy, and the agency's chairman planned to accept that decision on Thursday, commission officials said.

The telephone industry has supported 10-digit dialing because it would create a uniform system nationwide. It would also add to the numbering pool, because seven-digit numbers cannot now begin with 0 or 1, but they could if preceded by an area code.

Six states already have some form of 10-digit dialing.

But state regulators argue a nationwide requirement would place enormous burdens on consumers and small businesses. That would force them to reprogram their equipment and reprint stationery or other material.

``It won't save enough numbers to be worth the incredible inconvenience,'' said New Hampshire Public Utilities Commissioner Nancy Brockway.

States should focus first on making better use of existing numbers, she said. In New Hampshire, the switch from allocating 10,000 to 1,000 number blocks will allow the state to stick indefinitely with its existing one area code.

Some consumers say dialing the extra digits is not a big deal, given that many people program numbers into their phones that they can dial with a few strokes.

``I speed-dial a lot more now than I used to,'' said airline pilot Frank Corley who lives in Alexandria, Va., where an area code is required for all calls. Corley said he has set his cell phone to automatically add the local area code now if it is dialing a preprogrammed seven-digit number.

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On the Net:

North American Numbering Plan Administration site: http://www.nanpa.com

Federal Communications Commission: http://www.fcc.gov

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