The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court, issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
FCC
The FCC is seeking comment on a Petition For Expedited Declaratory Ruling filed by National Grid USA, Inc. asking the FCC to confirm that a “doing business as” (d/b/a) name registered with the state corporation commission (or comparable regulatory authority) satisfies the caller identification requirements for artificial or prerecorded voice calls under the FCC’s rules implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Comments are due March 31, 2014; reply comments are due April 15, 2014.
§64.1200(b)(1) of the FCC’s rules requires that an artificial or prerecorded voice telephone message shall “[a]t the beginning of the message, state clearly the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call. If a business is responsible for initiating the call, the name under which the entity is registered to conduct business with the State Corporation Commission (or comparable regulatory authority) must be stated.” National Grid notes that the FCC has not ruled specifically on whether a d/b/a name that is also registered with a state corporation commission satisfies this requirement. It asserts that a registered d/b/a name allows called parties the same ability to search for and identify the caller as a “legal” or “official business” name does. As such, it argues that a registered d/b/a name satisfies the intent of the rule. If the FCC declines to issue the requested declaratory ruling, National Grid argues that good cause exists to grant it a waiver to use its registered d/b/a name.
NANPA
The North American Numbering Plan Administration announced that, as of February 27, 2014, there were 53 566-NXXs available for assignment. As previously reported, the 5XX-NXX resource is projected to exhaust in the first quarter of 2014 and the 577 NPA will be used as the next 5XX NPA. See the Regulatory Mix dated October 15, 2013. NANPA said it would continue to keep the industry posted on the current supply of 500, 533, 544 and 566 NXXs and when assignments from the new 577 NPA will commence.
