WAS THE FCC DECISION ON 855 A GOOD THING?

First, for better or worse, the last minute FCC decision to limit RespOrg to 100 numbers per day made this release entirely different than the past ones.  Gone was the one-company-gets- all outcome of 800-555, or the all-numbers ending-in-three-zeros- are-gone-in-thirty seconds scenario of 877, or the 866 rendition, half-the-RespOrgs-locked out.

The result is that more than a week into the release there are still “good” numbers left.  There are still numbers with three zeros left, but the specific vanity numbers that spell words were gone in the first few minutes and mostly to the usual suspect.  ATL has a fortune 100 company that wanted the 855 number followed by the numbers spelling  their company name.  It was our first search in the opening minutes and it was already snapped up by a porn provider who undoubtedly wanted it because it will be frequently misdialed.  Some things never change.

So was it a good thing?  My opinion was that it was better than the past free for alls, but not perfect.  The main issue I saw was that it didn’t recognize that if you are a large RespOrg doing regular work (defined as not all vanity numbers)  you probably needed more numbers.  ATL has over a million numbers under our RespOrg IDs and more than 250 customers.  I’m sure AT&T and Verizon and other large carriers had more than 100 end users wanting numbers.  That made the FCC order difficult for us, but in the end, it made us far more competitive with the big engine guys who have been preparing for this for months, or years maybe.  So, my final answer – yes it was a good thing.

If anyone else wants  to weigh in on this I would be interested in hearing your opinion, but remember, I am referred to in some circles as “The RespOrg Goddess.”