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
NANPA
The North American Numbering Plan Administration announced that, as of March 28, 2014, the supply of 500, 533, 544, and 566-NXXs was exhausted. As a result, NANPA has initiated the assignment of 577 NXX codes. As previously reported, the 5XX-NXX resource was projected to exhaust in the first quarter of 2014. See the Regulatory Mix dated March 3, 2014 and October 15, 2013.
5XX-NXX codes are used for applications which are non-geographic in nature, are not assigned to rate centers, and may or may not traverse the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), but do require an E.164 addressing scheme. The 5XX-NXX codes can be used to communicate with both fixed and mobile devices.
UTAH
The PSC will hold a technical conference on April 8, 2014, beginning at 9:00 a.m. to consider additional changes to its Lifeline rules. Specifically, the PSC will discuss potential changes to the proposed rule changes in light of the comments previously filed by the parties to its docket. Parties should come prepared to explain their comments and may present their responses to other parties’ comments at the technical conference. PSC Staff will lead the discussion. See the Regulatory Mix dated February 17, 2014. TMI Regulatory Bulletin subscribers, see Utah Bulletin dated December 24, 2013.
ENERGY
PENNSYLVANIA
The PUC released a roughly one-minute video to further educate electricity customers about choosing between fixed and variable rates. “This is an ongoing education process,” Chairman Powelson said. “We have posted messages on our website and consumer alerts about variable prices. This new video talks about the difference between a fixed rate product and a variable rate product. We are doing a deeper dive to educate consumers to choose whether fixed or variable rates are right for them.”
The video is the first in a series of videos highlighting key aspects of choosing and staying with a competitive supplier and recent actions taken by the PUC to enhance the shopping experience for consumers. Future videos will feature using the sorting and filtering functionality of the online shopping tool, cancellation fees, and ways to save energy, among other things.
