REPORT ON THE 415 AREA CODE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Like much of the country, California currently is experiencing a numbering crisis. From 1947 to January 1997, the number of area codes in this state increased gradually from 3 to 13. During the next three years, however, the number of area codes in California nearly doubled. By the end of 1999, California had 25 area codes statewide. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently has implemented several measures intended to ensure efficient use of telephone numbers. Without these measures, the CPUC projects that 16 more area codes would need to be opened by the end of 2002, resulting in a statewide total of 41 area codes.

This study recounts the history of the 415 area code, from its creation in 1947 through the various splits to its present status, covering San Francisco and mostof Marin County. This report should be viewed in a broader context than the facts pertaining solely to the 415 area code. The report evaluates the status of number availability in the 415 area code, and discusses the various state and federal policies which govern number use in California and nationwide. In addition, the report analyzes number use by carrier category and identifies what measures the CPUC can employ in the 415 and other area codes toimprove efficiency of number use in order to avoid prematurely opening new area codes. Data is self-reported by the companies; the CPUC staff has not audited any 415 utilization data submitted for this study and report.

The utilization study sheds new light on the numbering crisis in the 415 area code. The data reveals that despite increasing demand for numbers, the 415 area code is not fully utilized. The study found that of the 7.7 million useable numbers in the 415 area code, approximately 3.9 million, orroughly half, presently are not in use. The data further establishes that the 415 area code possesses considerable room for growth, and thus, aggressive measures such as splits or overlays are not yetwarranted inthe 415 area code. The report further urges the CPUC to seek from the FCC authority to implement Unassigned Number Porting (UNP) as a means to more efficiently use numbers still available in the 415 area code.

This report is filed in compliance with CPUC Decision (D.) 99-12-051, and with AB 406, enacted by the California Legislature in the 1999 legislativesession. (Chapter99-809, 1999.) AB 406, codified as Public Utilities Code Section 7937, requires the CPUC to obtain historical telephone number use data from every telecommunications company in California. The CPUC's Telecommunications Division (TD) first obtained and analyzed data from the 310 area code in Los Angeles late in 1999, and produced a utilization report on 310 in March, 2000. This report on the 415 area code is one of a group of reports covering specific area code numberutilization levels.

FINDINGS

The 415 area code contains approximately 7.7 million telephone numbers available for consumer use. These numbers are available to telecommunications companies which obtain the numbers from the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA),1 and in turn, assign the numbers to their customers for their immediate use. Alternatively, companies may reserve numbers for future use, or retain numbers for some internal (administrative) use. Some companies provide blocks of numbers to resellers or "dealers", which then assign those numbers to customers. The FCC deems numbers which companies allocate to resellers to be "intermediate" numbers. In addition, each assigned number, after disconnection, must "age" during a transition period before assignment to the next customer. Many companies have inventories of numbers in the "aging" process. Finally, some numbers in this area code are not available for public use, as they have been set aside for emergency purposes, for technical network support, or for other reasons.

The FCC has determined that numbers in these five categories - assigned, administrative, reserved, intermediate, or aging - are unavailable, either because they are already in use or are designated for some present or future use. Of the nearly 4 million available numbers, approximately one million have been set aside by the CPUC to use in a lottery for companies seeking numbers, and for donation to the 415 number pool.2 Companies possess the remaining 2.8 million numbers. Wireline carriers, such as Pacific Bell and many competitive local exchange carriers, hold roughly 2.1 million available numbers, while wireless carriers hold approximately 700,000 available numbers.