Permanently Disconnected Telephone Number Aging and Data Collection Requirements Begin July 27

Beginning July 27, wireline, wireless and interconnected VoIP providers must age permanently disconnected numbers 45 days before reassigning numbers to new subscribers and maintain records of the dates when numbers are permanently disconnected. These new requirements are part of the new Reassigned Numbers Database (RND) being established to help with the country’s unwanted robocall issue. Dates for reporting this data to the RND have not yet been established.

The purpose of the RND Order is to establish a database of phone numbers that have been permanently disconnected and possibly reassigned. The database will enable callers, such as pharmacies and financial institutions, to verify before calling a number whether it’s been permanently disconnected and therefore should not be called (see our April 29, 2019 e-Lert for more information). The requirements’ effective date was set now that Office of Management and Budget’s approval was published in the June 26, 2020, Federal Register.

New Rules
Effective July 27, wireline, wireless and interconnected VoIP providers that receive numbering resources from the North American Numbering Plan Administrator or another telecommunications carrier must:

1. Age permanently disconnected telephone numbers a minimum of 45 days before reassigning the number to a new subscriber.
2. Maintain records of the most recent date each telephone number allocated or ported to the reporting carrier was permanently disconnected.

The FCC’s definition of “permanent disconnection” is when a subscriber has permanently relinquished a number or the provider permanently disassociates a number with a subscriber for active service in the service provider’s records. Permanently disconnected numbers do not include instances where the phone number is still associated with the subscriber, such as when a subscriber’s phone service has been disconnected temporarily for non-payment of a bill or when a consumer ports a number to another provider.

Rural Grace Period
Reporting carriers serving 100,000 or fewer domestic retail subscriber lines as reported on their most recent Forms 477, aggregated over all the providers’ affiliates, must begin keeping the disconnected telephone number records and reporting to the reassigned number database six months after the effective date for large providers.

If you have any questions about the Reassigned Numbers Database (RND), please contact one of our experts by clicking the button below.