Before the
                     Federal Communications Commission
                          Washington, D.C. 20554

In the Matter of                     )
                                     )
Petition of U S WEST Communications Inc. to)             CCB/CPD 98-33
Establish Part 69 Rate Elements to Offer Switched)
Access Transport for Local Number Portability)
                                     

                      MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER


   Adopted:  July 1, 1998                                               Released:  July 1, 1998

By the Chief, Competitive Pricing Division, Common Carrier Bureau:

                             I.  INTRODUCTION

      1.  In this Memorandum Opinion and Order, we grant the petition of U S WEST
Communications, Inc. (U S WEST) seeking under section 69.4(g)(1) of the Commission's rules to
establish new service rate elements to provide prearranged and default long-term number portability
query services for other carriers that deliver unqueried traffic to U S WEST for routing and
termination.

                              II.  BACKGROUND

      2.  Section 251(b)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, requires all local
exchange carriers (LECs) "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 number administration arrangements and number portability
shall be borne by all telecommunications carriers on a competitively neutral basis as determined by the
Commission."  Carriers intend to provide long-term number portability through a location routing
number (LRN) architecture.  Each switch is assigned a unique ten-digit LRN.  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.  Neutral third
parties, called local number portability administrators, will administer these regional databases.  When
a customer changes from one LEC to another, the carrier that wins the customer will "port" the
customer's number by electronically transmitting the new LRN to the administrator of the relevant
regional database.  The regional database administrator will then electronically transmit LRN updates
to local service management systems operated by carriers or third parties.  

      3.  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 a service control point to find the LRN
of the terminating telephone number.  Rather than perform their own querying, carriers may arrange
for other carriers or third parties to provide querying and other portability services for them.  The
Commission has approved the industry's "N minus 1" (N-1) querying protocol, in which the N-1
carrier will be responsible for the query, where "N" is the entity terminating the call.  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 established in the long-term number portability
cost recovery proceeding.  

      4.  In 1997, the Competitive Pricing Division (Division) granted petitions by Ameritech and
Bell Atlantic to establish new query service rate elements pursuant to section 69.4(g)(1)(i) of the
Commissions rules, which states that "[l]ocal exchange carriers subject to price cap regulation . . . may
establish one or more switched access rate elements for a new service . . . upon approval of a petition
demonstrating that . . . the establishment of the new rate element or elements would be in the public
interest."  In granting the petitions, the Division found that the rate elements were in the public
interest because "the Commission has already determined that carriers may assess charges for
performing query services on behalf of N-1 carriers" and "[a]llowing charges will facilitate
implementation of number portability . . . by providing a mechanism for LECs to recover the costs
associated with prearranged and default queries."  The Division subsequently granted petitions by
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company (Southwestern Bell) and Pacific Bell Telephone Company
(Pacific Bell) to establish new query service rate elements pursuant to section 69.4(g)(1)(ii), which
allows "[l]ocal exchange carriers subject to price cap regulation [to] establish one or more switched
access rate elements for a new service . . . upon approval of a petition demonstrating that . . . another
local exchange carrier has previously obtained permission to establish one or more rate elements
identical to those proposed in the petition to offer identical service."  The Division stated that it had
previously granted permission to establish identical rate elements in the Ameritech and Bell Atlantic
Order.  The Division also held that Southwestern Bell and Pacific Bell must conform their rates, rate
structures, regulations, and services offered under these rate elements to any determinations made by
the Commission in the long-term number portability cost recover item.  

                          III.  U S WEST Petition

      5.  U S WEST filed a petition on April 23, 1998 to establish under section 69.4(g)(1)(ii) of the
Commission's rules new service rate elements related to the provision of long-term number portability
(LNP) query services.  Specifically, the petition seeks to implement five rate elements:  (1) a
prearranged end office LNP query, (2) a prearranged tandem LNP query, (3) a default end office LNP
query, (4) a default tandem LNP query, and (5) an LNP query database charge.  U S WEST asserts
that its proposed rate elements are identical to those previously approved for Bell Atlantic, and that
pursuant to section 69.4(g)(1)(ii), the Commission should approve its petition.

      6.  We grant U S WEST's petition under section 69.4(g)(i)(ii) of the Commission's rules.  As
U S WEST points out, the Division has already granted Bell Atlantic permission to establish identical
rate elements.  Any subsequent transmittals submitted by U S WEST to establish tariffed rates under
these new rate elements should conform to the Commission's directives in the Third Report and Order
regarding cost support for its query service tariffs. 

                          IV.  ORDERING CLAUSES 
              
      7.  Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that, pursuant to sections 4(i) and 201-205 of the
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C.  154(i) and 201-205, and authority delegated
pursuant to sections 0.91 and 0.291 of the Commission's rules, 47 CFR  0.91, 0.291, the petition of
U S WEST Communications, Inc. seeking under section 69.4(g)(1)(ii) of the Commission's rules to
establish new service rate elements that would allow it to charge rates for the provision of long-term
number portability query services on behalf of other carriers IS GRANTED subject to the conditions
discussed herein.


              FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION




              Jane E. Jackson
              Chief, Competitive Pricing Division
              Common Carrier Bureau