855 SITES, SALE OR SERVICE?

For as long as there have been toll free numbers there have been arguments over the sale of toll free numbers.  The argument stems from a statement in the FCC Tariff: 

“2.3.1  All entities, (e.g., RespOrgs, subscribers, service providers), are prohibited from selling, brokering, bartering, and releasing for a fee (or otherwise) any toll free number.” 

The FCC can do this because that agency is charged with protecting this “scarce resource” based on public interest.  These rules have not changed since the original FCC order decades ago.  

So do the 855 sites fall into “brokering” or “releasing for a fee?”  It depends on how you look at the service.  There are some who say that this doesn’t fall outside the rules because this is just a service to get numbers consumers want and, because there is an additional investment in systems, it is the cost of those systems that is being covered.  At least one industry person claims that once he has an agency agreement with a customer the legal requirements of that agency outweigh any rules that come from the FCC. 

So here is my opinion.  It goes on all the time and everyone knows it.  In 1995 we had the FCC listen to a recording that said, “If you want this toll free number here is how you buy it.”  Nothing happened and this launched a pet peeve of mine ever since.  We were offered $10,000 for a number once, but since we are more a “letter of the law” type than a “gray area to be tested” type,” we didn’t accept it. 

Domain names allow for selling and as the plans to tie toll free numbers and domain names together in future applications unfolds, it is time for the FCC to realize that selling the “market right” to toll free numbers is different than selling the number.  It is federally mandated that toll free numbers cannot be owned because they are a national resource, but that is different from allowing two companies that have a common purpose to exchange the control of a toll free number for money without sneaking around.  

Maybe this all changed last week, though.  Some RespOrgs including ATL received an FCC Inquiry requiring us to provide information on numbers reserved in January or March.  Due to the way that these inquiries work we aren’t privy to why this is being requested; whether some specific company suggested it or how many RespOrgs got the request, but I do know it wasn’t just ATL.  The last spreadsheet required demands a list of every toll free number for which the RespOrg received more than $100. 

Is this the policing some of the industry has asked for?  MORE TO COME …