[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2357 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2357

     To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to facilitate number 
   portability in order to increase consumer choice of voice service 
                               provider.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 12, 2009

Mrs. Bono Mack introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to facilitate number 
   portability in order to increase consumer choice of voice service 
                               provider.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Same Number Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. VOICE SERVICE NUMBER PORTABILITY.

    (a) In General.--Title VII of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 601 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 714 the 
following:

``SEC. 715. NUMBER PORTABILITY.

    ``(a) In General.--A provider of voice services has the duty to 
provide, to the extent technically feasible, number portability in 
accordance with requirements prescribed by the Commission.
    ``(b) Standards.--
            ``(1) In general.--Within 60 days after the date of 
        enactment of the Same Number Act of 2009, to facilitate 
        consumer choice among voice service providers the Commission 
        shall adopt a report and order in the rulemaking proceeding 
        considering an intermodal porting interval (WT Docket 07-243, 
        et al. (released November 7, 2007)) to establish number 
        portability performance standards for voice service providers 
        that--
                    ``(A) adopts a porting interval for wireline-to-
                wireline and intermodal simple port requests that is no 
                greater than the tentative conclusion regarding such 
                interval proposed by the Commission in such proceeding;
                    ``(B) prohibit the porting-out provider from 
                deactivating and removing a number from its switch for 
                at least 48 hours after the scheduled port request is 
                completed; and
                    ``(C) encourage the reasonable automation of the 
                porting process.
            ``(2) Streamlined porting process.--
                    ``(A) Development of requirements.--Not later than 
                45 days after such date of enactment, the Commission 
                shall direct the North American Numbering Council to 
                develop a streamlined and standardized number porting 
                process and report back to the Commission within 180 
                days after the Council receives such direction. Such 
                process shall--
                            ``(i) include the establishment of a 
                        uniform set of provisioning fields that is the 
                        minimum number of fields necessary to 
                        accomplish a port; and
                            ``(ii) prohibit a porting-out voice service 
                        provider from imposing additional provisioning 
                        fields on the porting-in voice service 
                        provider.
                    ``(B) Adoption by commission.--Not later than 45 
                days after the Commission receives the report required 
                by subparagraph (A), the Commission shall codify the 
                number porting process developed by the North American 
                Numbering Council as a requirement in its rules. The 
                Commission may thereafter prescribe such modifications 
                to such number porting process as the Commission 
                determines, after providing notice and opportunity for 
                public comment, necessary to streamline porting.
            ``(3) Flexibility.--In adopting performance standards under 
        paragraph (1), the Commission may--
                    ``(A) take into account differences between simple 
                and complex ports; and
                    ``(B) grant a waiver of such standards for any 
                provider or class of providers that can show that such 
                standards would result in unreasonable compliance costs 
                for that provider or class, except that any such waiver 
                shall be of limited duration.
            ``(4) Public access to timeframes.--The Commission shall 
        make available to the public on its Internet website any 
        standard timeframes established by the Commission under 
        paragraph (1).
    ``(c) Porting Reporting.--
            ``(1) Commission.--Beginning 1 year after the date on which 
        the Commission issues the final rule under subsection (b), the 
        Commission shall submit a report each year to the Senate 
        Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the 
        House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce on 
        the effectiveness and efficiency of the number portability 
        performance standards for voice service providers established 
        under this section.
            ``(2) Sunset.--The requirements of this subsection shall 
        cease to apply 60 months after the date on which the Commission 
        issues such final rule.
    ``(d) Numbering Administration.--
            ``(1) Commission authority and jurisdiction.--The 
        Commission shall designate 1 or more impartial entities to 
        administer telecommunications and voice service numbering and 
        to ensure that numbers are available on an equitable basis. The 
        Commission has exclusive jurisdiction of those portions of the 
        North American Numbering Plan that pertain to the United 
        States. Nothing in this subsection precludes the Commission 
        from delegating to State Commission or other entities all or a 
        portion of such jurisdiction.
            ``(2) Costs.--The costs of establishing numbering 
        administration arrangements and number portability shall be 
        borne by all voice service providers on a competitively neutral 
        basis, as determined by the Commission.
            ``(3) Universal emergency telephone number.--The Commission 
        and any agency or entity to which the Commission has delegated 
        authority under this subsection shall designate 9-1-1 as the 
        universal emergency telephone number within the United States 
        for reporting an emergency to appropriate authorities and 
        requesting assistance. The designation shall apply to both 
        wireline and wireless telephone service.
    ``(e) Voice Service Defined.--In this section, the term `voice 
service' means--
            ``(1) a telecommunications service; or
            ``(2) any service that is not a telecommunications service, 
        but that otherwise is an IP-enabled voice service as defined in 
        section 9.3 of the Commission's regulations (47 CFR 9.3), as 
        those regulations may be amended by the Commission from time to 
        time.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendments.--Section 251 of the Communications Act 
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 251) is amended--
            (1) by striking subsection (b)(2) and redesignating 
        paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) of subsection (b) as paragraphs 
        (2), (3), and (4), respectively; and
            (2) by striking subsection (e) and redesignating 
        subsections (f), (g), (h), and (i) as subsections (e), (f), 
        (g), and (h), respectively.
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