The 855 code has been out for just over a week.  How has it gone?  What’s the outlook for the next twenty or so days.

About 185 of the almost 400 RespOrgs participated in the first few week’s rush on 855 numbers.   As of Wednesday there had been almost 45,000 855 numbers reserved.  ATL goes in at 9:00 AM Pacific Time every day (Saturday and Sunday included) to get our FCC allotted one hundred numbers.  In about four minutes “The Event” is over.   ATL has stuck to our original commitment through bribery offers and customer arguments that would impress the Supreme Court.  We only get numbers for our clients and we continue through the list on a first come-first service basis.  We run an automated system and look manually.  Oddly enough, the manual has been more effective for the popular numbers.  In fact the first day all 100 of our numbers came from one-at-a-time manual entry.

We are still taking requests, although at the back of the line.  On November 8th we will put through whatever is left.  Then on November 23rd we will run the list one more time in case any of the numbers reserved did not go active and are returned to the pool as spare.  Then this code release will go down with the others in telephony history.

Samantha Lynn Elzey

Born: September 17, 2010 @ 6:12pm

8 lbs 03 oz, 19 ¾ In.

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The FCC announced yesterday that the 855 code release scheduled for October 2 will be delayed until October 9, but that’s not the biggest news.  The biggest news is that all 400+ RespOrgs will be limited to 100 reservation per day for the following 30 days.  The FCC made this decision  after a number of comments to the “Petition for Emergency Relief and Expedited Action” filed by the Toll Free Number Coalition. (See September 3 blog)  ATL filed comment and is quoted twice in yesterday’s announcement.

ATL decided several months ago not to be one of the companies that made investments in the “gold rush” approach to the 855 code opening.  Our customers have provided us with lists of numbers which we have carefully managed in a first come first serve list.  Under the new rules we will begin at the top of the list on October 9 and each day reserve our 100 number limit and continue that daily for the 30 days.  If we have numbers left at the end of the thirty days we will reserve those on the 31^st day.

So after all this do I think this is a good decision by the FCC?  I think it is as good as anything.  As I was quoted in the decision, “the desire for specific numbers by a few RespOrgs and the lengths they will go to get them has made the process of simultaneous release of numbers in a code inherently a process that can be abused.”  The industry and the FCC must consider a way to better police the practices of specific RespOrgs, a fact that has been ignored since the early 1990s.  I am submitting a series of issues in the SNAC to move in that direction and we’ll see how effective I can be in the future.