The FCC has granted a waiver of its rules to allow all carriers that provide service in areas of Oklahoma declared as having experienced a major disaster due to the recent severe storms and tornadoes to age residential numbers for more than 90 days. This will allow customers who have been displaced by the severe storms and tornadoes in Oklahoma to discontinue their service temporarily and to reinstate it at a later time. Due to the catastrophic nature of the damage in Oklahoma, the FCC expects customers will seek to reinstate their service after the normal 90-day aging period has lapsed. The rule wavier will allow carriers in the affected areas to disconnect temporarily customers’ telephone service, upon request, to avoid billing issues, and then reinstate the same numbers when service is reconnected in those areas. The affected counties are Cleveland, Lincoln, McClain, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie counties.
The Commission recognized that customers in the affected rate centers may desire to port numbers to locations outside those rate centers and that during this period of service interruptions, carriers are being encouraged to port telephone numbers geographically outside a rate center to the extent that it is
technically feasible. The Commission also encourages all carriers in the affected areas to waive call forwarding, message center, and voicemail service charges for affected customers, to the extent lawfully permitted, until the customers’ service is restored.
Link to the FCC Order here.
