JSI Urges FCC to Include Hundreds-Block Pooling in Upcoming Numbering Testbed

On February 20, 2014, JSI filed a proposal with the FCC championing the inclusion of Hundreds-Block Pooling in the upcoming numbering testbed that is part of the Commission’s plan for the IP transition. JSI believes such a process will allow the testbed participants to focus on routing and assignment of credentials for telephone numbers, instead of on obtaining numbers. This latest filing reiterates JSI’s September 2013 ex parte to migrate from thousands-block number pooling to hundreds-block number pooling.

The FCC’s Order specifically stated the Commission anticipates the testbed to use common industry approaches that support operations such as allocating a number “just in time” or in a block from the available pools of numbers. This could refer to more or less than the JSI proposed hundreds-blocks allocation level; however, that is yet to be determined. In addition, the testbed should allow for rapid porting with validation mechanisms, similar to domain names, which provide users with secure porting keys for their numbers as well as database lookup for call routing.  The call routing portion should determine the life expectancy of the LRN in the IP world. All of the FCC’s criteria can be accomplished under the hundreds-block level number allocation method.

JSI will participate in the FCC’s open industry workshop on March 25 for planning the numbering testbed. The goals are to determine the community of interest and identify the basic numbering allocation and management needs in an all-IP based system. The workshop will not address Commission policy or contracting requirements. We will update clients on the progress after the workshop.