BEFORE THE WASHINGTON UTILITIES AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION






IN THE MATTER OF THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE ISSUE OF NUMBERING RESOURCES


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		DOCKET NO. UT-991627
		
		
		COMMISSION ORDER APPORTIONING COSTS OF
		POOLING ADMINISTRATOR
		IN AREA CODE 509


I.  BACKGROUND


1 This matter arises from the need to implement number conservation in eastern 
Washington, resulting  from the decreasing available NXX three-number dialing 
codes, also called number “prefixes,” that  has been caused by the growth of 
competitive local exchange and wireless companies and services  such as paging 
devices.

2 On November 20, 2000, the Commission designated Telcordia Technologies as the 
state's interim  number pooling administrator and requested that North American 
Pooling Portability Management,  LLC, enter into a contract with Telcordia for 
interim pooling services.

3 On November 30, 2000, the Commission directed all telecommunication companies 
with prefixes in  rate centers serving the Spokane metropolitan statistical 
area and with switches capable of local  number portability to implement a 
thousand-number block pooling trial by July 8, 2001.

4 The Commission issued a request for comment regarding cost allocation of the 
pooling administrator in  area code 509 on January 25, 2001, asking for 
comments by February 28, 2001.  All affected   carriers and interested persons 
were notified and the Commission received comments from five large  
telecommunications carriers:  AT&T, Qwest Corporation, Sprint, Verizon, and 
WorldCom.

5 Each of the commenting carriers recommended the Commission adopt the 
allocation mechanism that  is used to allocate local number portability (LNP) 
costs.  This method allocates costs among those  telecommunications carriers 
capable of local number portability based on the revenues of the   LNP-capable 
carriers.  See 47 CFR § 52.32.  

6 The Commission agrees that this method is competitively neutral and would be 
simple to apply, since it  relies on an allocation method already used for the 
shared costs of long-term number portability.   While an allocation method that 
reflects the benefits to non-LNP carriers of number pooling would  arguably be 
more equitable, the shared costs of interim number pooling are not large enough 
to justify  the effort that would be required to develop and implement such a 
method.  The Commission notes  that all of the commenters advocating the LNP 
method are themselves LNP-capable carriers.


II.  FINDINGS OF FACT

7 The Commission is an agency of the State of Washington with jurisdiction over 
the provision of   telecommunications services within the state of Washington.

8 The Commission has previously designated Telcordia Technologies as Washington’
s interim number  pooling administrator and requested comments on how 
Telcordia's costs should be apportioned  among telecommunications carriers.  

9 Apportionment of pooling administrator costs by intrastate revenue among all 
LNP-capable   telecommunications carriers in the 509 area code is a fair and 
well defined mechanism that is   understood by the industry.


III.  CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

10 The Commission has jurisdiction over the funding of number conservation 
plans by virtue of the   Telecommunications Act of 1996, Section 251(e)(1); 47 
CFR § 52.19(a); and RCW 80.36.610.

11 The Commission should accept and approve the revenue based allocation 
mechanism used for local  number portability to allocate costs of the pooling 
administrator in eastern Washington’s area code  509.

12 This matter was brought before the Commission at its regularly scheduled open
 Meeting on May 9, 2001.  The Commissioners, having been fully advised in the 
matter, and having  determined the following order to be consistent with the 
public interest, enter the following order and  related provisions.



IV.  ORDER


13 The Commission directs telecommunications companies in the state of 
Washington, acting through  North American Pooling Portability Management, LLC, 
to pay the costs of the pooling administrator  in area code 509 based on 
intrastate revenues, as used by the companies to allocate local number  
portability costs.

14 The Commission retains jurisdiction over this matter to issue such future 
orders and take such future  action as may be appropriate.


DATED at Olympia, Washington and effective this 9th day of  May, 2001.


WASHINGTON UTILITIES AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION



     MARILYN SHOWALTER, Chairwoman



     RICHARD HEMSTAD, Commissioner