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
National Telephone Discount LifeLine Awareness Week: September 8-15, 2014
The lifelinesupport.org website includes a list of telecommunications providers by state. Information is also available on the federal Lifeline website. California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia join with other states throughout the country in observing Lifeline Awareness Week and encouraging eligible citizens to take advantage of the Lifeline program.
FCC
In a blog post, the FCC announced it launched a project to improve the fcc.gov website and unify all of its related subdomains. The project is focused on enhancing the website to allow the FCC “to more effectively meet the needs of our site’s internal and external stakeholders.” The first phase of the project will be completed by mid-January and will include improved search capabilities of the FCC’s current publicly available content and a working prototype of the new fcc.gov. The second phase of the project is scheduled to be completed by mid-June and will include a “fully functioning, responsively designed website with updated content and robust search capability.” The third phase of the project will focus on improving the FCC’s employee intranet website. The FCC said it is “focused on answering the call from our users to improve our site. We are collaborating with multiple internal and external stakeholders to provide feedback and input, and the resulting data will guide the improvements to our website.”
Florida
NANPA released a Planning Letter detailing the 786 NPA Overlay in Monroe County (the Florida Keys). TMI Regulatory Bulletin Service subscribers see Bulletin dated 7/21/14. A permissive dialing period has been in place since August 1, 2001. Beginning on April 18, 2015, all local calls within and between the 305 and 786 NPAs in the overlay area will require 10-digit dialing. All international and domestic carriers should ensure that the 786 NPA has been activated throughout their networks. The test number will be 786-786-1786. It will be available January 2, 2015, until May 1, 2015.
Ohio
The PUC issued a Press Release reminding Ohioans of the 740/220 area code overlay. Beginning September 20, 2014, customers start to use 10 or 11-digit dialing (area code + seven digit phone number or 1 + area code + seven digit phone number). Mandatory 10 or 11-digit dialing begins on March 21, 2015. TMI Regulatory Bulletin Service subscribers see Bulletin dated 1/2/14.
Vermont
The Department of Public Service issued a DRAFT of the 2014 Vermont Telecommunications Plan and invites public comment. The Plan addresses the major ongoing developments in the telecommunications industry, including broadband infrastructure development, regulatory policy, and recommendations for future action. The Department will hold public hearings in August and September on the DRAFT prior to adopting the final Plan.
“This plan provides Vermont residents, businesses, and policy leaders with an objective assessment of how far we’ve come in the last 10 years, our successes, as well as our vision for the next ten years,” said Public Service Commissioner Christoph er Recchia. “The Plan also discusses the telecommunications challenges facing Vermont, as well as realistic and attainable solutions to those challenges,” he added.
