[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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