On 5 February 2024, the CRTC issued Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2024-26 - Implementing thousand-block pooling (the Policy). In this Policy, the Commission asked the telecommunications industry to make various recommendations to strengthen the number assignment guidelines to preserve geographic North American Numbering Plan (NANP) resources.
The Canadian Steering Committee on Numbering (CSCN) has prepared a second report for the Commission (See the full report here) with a number of key recommendations concerning the inclusion of unused numbers from previously assigned Central Office Codes (CO Codes) to available number pool inventories. In a Thousands-Block Pooling (TBP) environment, the return (donation) and re-assignment of unused Telephone Numbers (TNs) must be done in blocks of one thousand provided the block being returned is not too contaminated. Contamination within a block of TNs assigned to a carrier occurs when at least one TN within a block of TNs is unavailable for assignment to end users or customers. The contamination level within a Thousands-Block is the number of TNs unavailable for assignment divided by 1,000, expressed as a percentage.
Below is a summary of some of the key recommendations from the report:
a maximum of 10% contamination as a block donation criterion be used for the return of Thousands-Blocks by carriers,
carriers adopt a voluntary block donation process as part of the initial implementation of TBP in advance of the rollout of TBP in an Exchange Area,
Thousands-Blocks assigned to a carrier but not put into service within 6 months of assignment be subject to reclamation,
the number porting process documentation be modified to reflect the revised snap-back process (i.e., what happens when a ported TN is disconnected) to accommodate TBP as follows:
When a block has been donated to the pool and subsequently assigned to another carrier, ported TNs must snap back to the new owner of the block.
If a donated block has not yet been assigned to a new block holder, a previously ported out TN must snap back to the CO Code Holder. However, rather than making the TN available for re-assignment, the carrier must treat it as a "vacant number" until the block is assigned at a later date.
When the service associated with a ported TN is disconnected, the TN will snap back to the block holder where the block is assigned to a carrier.
Type I & Type II CLECs must acquire at least one Thousands-Block and establish a Local Routing Number (LRN), either by obtaining a footprint CO Code or by acquiring a facilitated LRN from a third party, in every Local Interconnection Region in which they want to offer local service.
Wireless service providers must acquire at least one Thousands-Block and establish an LRN, either by obtaining a footprint CO Code or by acquiring a facilitated LRN from a third party in every Local Calling Area in which they want to offer wireless service. Note that a wireless service provider can choose to interconnect as a Type II CLEC in which case the LRN requirement applies to the Local Interconnection Region.
Stay tuned for further articles on additional recommendations from the CSCN for the implementation of TBP!
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