Washington, D.C.’s new additional area code is 771. It will overlay the entire 202 code, the D.C. Public Service Commission said Tuesday (see 2009220002). The PSC confirmed a 13-month implementation schedule, including six months for network preparation, six months of customer education and one month -- after a permissive dialing period ends -- when 10-digit dialing becomes mandatory. The agency established a working group to educate consumers and asked that interested participants request to join by Oct. 16. “The 202 area code has been part of D.C. culture for over 50 years and it is not going away,” said Chairman Willie Phillips. “However, we stand ready to assist in a smooth transition to the added 771 area code.” Commissioners voted 2-0 last week to approve the request by the North American Numbering Plan administrator for the overlay and required 10-digit dialing (see 2009160080). "After the working group convenes, the implementation schedule with dates will be finalized and posted for the public," a PSC spokesperson emailed. "This will include the start date as well as when 771 will become available." The overlay may be one of the most significant in years for major metropolitan areas and could lead to a secondary market for 202 numbers, we reported last week. NANPA projected that without relief, numbers in the current D.C. area code would run out in Q3 2022.
Statutory limits on state and federal authority stop the FCC and NARUC “from squarely addressing unjust and unreasonable intrastate rates” for inmate calling services, the federal agency and state commissioners’ association said in a Tuesday letter to the National Governors Association. “Until there is Congressional or state legislative action, neither the FCC nor state commissions can cap the excessive intrastate rates that lie beyond our authority,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and NARUC President Brandon Presley wrote NGA Chair Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., and Vice Chair Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark. NGA “received the letter today and have been sharing it with governors’ offices,” a spokesperson emailed. FCC and NARUC efforts “are complicated by a patchwork of authority over rates and charges,” with FCC authority limited to interstate and international rates and some state regulators lacking jurisdiction over intrastate rates, Pai and Presley wrote. “We understand that in most, if not all, cases where a state commission does have jurisdiction, rates have been set at just and reasonable levels.” The FCC says “intrastate rates for debit or prepaid calls substantially exceed existing interstate rates in 45 states,” sometimes by up to seven times, while 27 states allow first-minute intrastate charges up to 26 times higher than for an interstate call, they said. “This situation is unacceptable, especially as the overwhelming majority of calls from incarcerated individuals -- roughly 80% -- are billed as intrastate.” Pai and Presley attached a list of facilities that charged intrastate rates above interstate caps last year. “Prompt and meaningful action on intrastate rates is critical to ensuring that incarcerated individuals and their loved ones can maintain vital connections during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.” Presley will propose a resolution at NARUC’s November meeting (see 2007240045).
The California Advanced Services Fund surcharge may nearly double to 1.019% from 0.56% starting Dec. 1. The California Public Utilities Commission plans to vote on the proposal at its Oct. 22 meeting, the agency said Friday. The change would be effective until Dec. 30, 2022, or when further revised by the CPUC. Comments are due Oct. 12. The legislature failed to pass a CASF bill this session that could have provided additional broadband infrastructure money to the dwindling fund (see 2008310034). That disappointed Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves, who tells us CASF needs more funding (see 2009180038). The agency is working on how to make current funding last until the next legislative session, she said. COVID-19 made it “tricky” to finalize many bills, including the Senate-passed SB-1130 that would have emphasized fiber, she said. “You want to be building for sustainability.”
Internet gaps exposed by COVID-19 are fueling calls by state policymakers to treat broadband like a utility. With federal preemption issues, the California Public Utilities Commission plans to “push the question,” said Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves in an interview last week. Washington state’s net neutrality law author said he will seek to fully allow municipal broadband next year. A Michigan regulation bill might also return in 2021.
The District of Columbia’s new area code is 771. It will overlay the entire 202 area code, the D.C. Public Service Commission said Tuesday.
The Mississippi Public Service Commission got information from AT&T responsive to the agency’s subpoena about what happened with more than $283 million in Connect America Fund support to expand broadband to 133,000 Mississippi locations (see 2009100059), PSC Chairman Brandon Presley said Friday. “We’re continuing our investigation” and will share findings with Universal Service Administrative Co., Presley told us. The PSC is still finding addresses where the company claims it provides service yet denies customers’ requests for installation, he said. Mississippi law and PSC rules "protect against the public disclosure of competitively-sensitive information, including the number of customers we serve," an AT&T spokesperson said. "We have informed the commission that we will provide the requested information subject to those safeguards."
FCC RF safety rules preempt a local law in Berkeley, California, U.S. District Court in San Francisco decided Thursday. Judge Edward Chen granted CTIA’s motion for judgment, saying the FCC was persuasive that the local law could overwarn the public. “Given the specificity of the warning required by the Berkeley ordinance, the implied risk to safety if the warning is not followed (a risk the FCC has concluded does not exist), and the acknowledged” RF safety debate, “the FCC could properly conclude that the Berkeley ordinance -- as worded -- overwarns and stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment of balancing federal objectives by the FCC,” he said.
Washington, D.C., is closer to getting a new area code, in addition to the widely known 202. District of Columbia Public Service Commissioners voted 2-0 Wednesday to approve a request by the North American numbering plan administrator for an overlay of the 202 area code and required 10-digit dialing (see 2009160079). NANPA proposed a 13-month implementation. The overlay may be one of the most significant in years for major metropolitan areas and could lead to a secondary market for 202 numbers, said our Monday report. NANPA projected numbers in the D.C. area code would run out in Q3 2022 without relief. The new vote was taken in a meeting that wasn't webcast live, the contents of which were relayed to us by a PSC representative.
Oregon justices wrestled with how to make a cellphone privacy rule outlining when it’s permissible for police to require someone to unlock an encrypted device. At livestreamed Supreme Court oral argument Tuesday in State v. Pittman, Chief Justice Martha Walters questioned state arguments that entering a password reveals nothing more than knowledge of the code and that the user plays no big role in decryption. The U.S. Supreme Court might take up the issue that has split state courts, said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and National Police Association (NPA) officials in Wednesday interviews.
Washington, D.C., is closer to getting a new area code. It would be in addition to the widely-known 202.