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If you need the complete document, download the WordPerfect version or Adobe Acrobat version, if available. ***************************************************************** Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of ) ) Petition of Pacific Bell Telephone Company ) Under Section 69.4(g)(1)(ii) ) CCB/CPD 98-23 of the Commission's Rules ) for Establishment of New Service Rate Elements ) ) Pacific Bell Tariff F.C.C. No. 128 ) for provision of Long-Term Number Portability ) Transmittal No. 1973 Database Related Services ) Memorandum Opinion and Order Adopted: March 27, 1998 Released: March 27, 1998 By the Chief, Competitive Pricing Division: I. Introduction 1. In this Memorandum Opinion & Order, we suspend for one day and set for investigation Pacific Bell Transmittal No. 1973, which seeks, among other things, to revise its rates and to propose text revisions applicable to its service provider number portability query services. II. Background 2. Section 251(b)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, requires all local exchange carriers "to provide, to the extent technically feasible, number portability in accordance with requirements prescribed by the Commission." Section 251(e)(2) states that "[t]he cost of establishing telecommunications numbering administration arrangements and number portability shall be borne by all telecommunications carriers on a competitively neutral basis as determined by the Commission. Pursuant to section 251(b)(2) and criteria the Commission established in its Report and Order & Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Order & Further Notice) to implement this statutory mandate, carriers will provide long-term number portability through a location routing number (LRN) architecture. Under an LRN architecture, each switch is assigned a unique ten-digit LRN, the first six digits of which identify the location of that switch. Each customer's telephone number is paired with the LRN for the switch that currently serves that telephone number, and the number and the corresponding LRN are stored in one of seven databases, each of which serves an area that corresponds to one of the original Regional Bell Operating Company service territories. Neutral third parties, called local number portability administrators, will administer these regional databases. 3. When a customer changes from one LEC to another, the carrier that wins the customer will "port" the customer's number from the former carrier by electronically transmitting (uploading) the new LRN to the administrator of the relevant regional database. This will pair the customer's original telephone number with the LRN for the switch of the new carrier, allowing the customer to retain the original telephone number. The regional database administrator will then electronically transmit (download) LRN updates to local service management systems operated by carriers or third-parties. This information will then be distributed to service control points (SCPs) that the carriers use to store and process data for providing number portability. 4. For a carrier to route an interswitch telephone call to a location where number portability is available, the carrier must determine the LRN for the switch that serves the terminating telephone number of the call. Carriers will accomplish this by querying an SCP to find the LRN of the terminating telephone number. Rather than perform its own querying, an N-1 carrier may arrange for other carriers or third parties to provide querying and other portability services for them. In the Second Report and Order, the Commission approved the industry's "N minus one" (N-1) querying protocol. Under this protocol, the N-1 carrier will be responsible for the query, "where 'N' is the entity terminating the call to the end user, or a network provider contracted by the entity to provide tandem access." Thus, the N-1 carrier for a local call will usually be the calling customer's LEC; the N-1 carrier for an interexchange call will usually be the calling customer's interexchange carrier. 5. The Commission also determined that if an N-1 carrier arranges with another entity to perform queries on the carrier's behalf that other entity may charge the N-1 carrier in accordance with requirements to be established in the pending long-term number portability cost recovery proceeding. The Commission also noted that when an N-1 carrier fails to ensure that a call is queried, the call might be routed by default to the LEC that originally served the telephone number. If the number has been ported, the LEC that originally served the customer incurs costs in redirecting the call. This could happen, for example, if there is a technical failure in the N-1 carrier's ability to query, or if the N-1 carrier fails to ensure that its calls are queried, either through its own query capability or through an arrangement with another carrier or third-party. The Commission determined in the Second Report and Order that if a LEC performs queries on default-routed calls the LEC may charge the N-1 carrier in accordance with requirements to be established in a pending Commission proceeding aimed at implementing section 251(e)(2)'s competitive neutrality requirement with respect to the costs of long-term number portability. The Commission has not yet issued its order on the costs of long-term number portability. 6. The Competitive Pricing Division (Division) of the Common Carrier Bureau issued two Memorandum Opinions and Orders on October 30, 1997, and December 30, 1997, granting petitions by Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Southwestern Bell, and Pacific Bell to establish new service rate elements to provide long-term number portability query services. The Division required all four carriers, however, to conform their rates, rate structures, regulations, and services offered under these rate elements to any determinations made by the Commission in CC Docket No. 95-116. The Division further concluded that the tariffs the carriers filed implementing the rate elements raised substantial questions of lawfulness. Consequently, the Division suspended the tariffs for one day and set them for investigation. The Division also imposed an accounting order for the duration of the investigation. The Commission has not yet concluded its investigation of these tariffs. III. Pacific Bell Rate Element Tariffs 7. Pacific Bell filed Transmittal No. 1973 on March 13, 1998, with a scheduled effective date of March 28, 1998, to revise its previously filed query service tariff currently under investigation. On March 20, 1998, AT&T filed a petition to reject or, alternatively, suspend and investigate the tariff revisions described in Pacific Bell's Transmittal No. 1973 . Pacific Bell filed a reply to AT&T's petition on March 24, 1998. 8. The Commission is currently considering the appropriate policies, regulations, and rules regarding cost recovery of long-term number portability costs in CC Docket No. 95-116. This includes consideration of mechanisms by which incumbent LECs should be permitted to recover their long-term number portability costs, the kinds of costs carriers may recover, and the extent to which they may establish query charges. Pacific Bell's tariff revisions described in Transmittal No. 1973 raise issues that the Commission is currently considering in the long-term number portability cost recovery proceeding, and will be subject to any decisions of the Commission in that proceeding. 9. We conclude that Pacific Bell's tariff revisions described in Transmittal No. 1973 raise substantial questions of lawfulness warranting suspension and investigation. Pacific Bell has not provided sufficient cost justification and other support to permit a full assessment of the reasonableness of the proposed charges and rate structures, particularly in light of the ongoing proceeding in CC Docket No. 95- 116. For example, Pacific Bell has not provided a sufficiently detailed explanation of how it derived its per-query costs, including the components that make up its annual investment for its query service. In addition, it is unclear how much of Pacific Bell's Operations Support Systems (OSS) relate to the provision of number portability. Furthermore, it is not clear whether Pacific Bell's nonrecurring billing charge is lawful under the Communications Act, and whether its level of overhead and joint and common costs is reasonable. We will, therefore, suspend the tariff revisions described in Pacific Bell Transmittal No. 1973 for one day and institute an investigation. We will also impose an accounting order with respect to the services offered under Pacific Bell Transmittal No. 1973 during the course of the investigation. We will separately issue an order designating issues for investigation in this proceeding. V. ORDERING CLAUSES 10. IT IS ORDERED that, pursuant to section 204(a) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C.  204(a), and sections 0.91 and 0.291 of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R.  0.91 and 0.291, the tariff revisions described in Pacific Bell's Transmittal No. 1973 ARE SUSPENDED for one day and an investigation IS INSTITUTED. 11. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Pacific Bell SHALL FILE a supplement within 5 business days after release of this Memorandum Opinion and Order suspending the tariff revisions filed under Pacific Bell's Transmittal No. 1973 for one day to March 29, 1998. Pacific Bell should cite the "DA" number of this Order as its authority for this filings. 12. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, pursuant to section 204(a) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C.  204(a), and section 0.291 of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R.  0.291, Pacific Bell SHALL KEEP ACCURATE ACCOUNT of all amounts that are associated with the rates that are subject to this investigation. 13. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that AT&T's petition to reject or, alternatively, suspend and investigate the revisions described in Pacific Bell's Transmittal No. 1973 is GRANTED to the extent indicated herein, and is OTHERWISE DENIED. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Jane E. Jackson Chief, Competitive Pricing Division Common Carrier Bureau