Central Office Code Reclamation and Extensions, p. 3

REQUESTING AN EXTENSION 
Current Central Office Code Assignment Guidelines allow a carrier to receive an extension for one of two reasons:

1. The activation has not occurred due to reasons beyond the carrier’s control, such as a delay in interconnection with another carrier.
2. A single customer is to be assigned the full NXX code, but is not yet ready to accept numbers.

Codeholders seeking an extension of the Part 4 deadline must submit their requests to the Commission in writing and explain the reason for the delay in activating the NXXs. In each request for an extension of the Part 4 deadline, the codeholders must:

1. Explain the reason for the delay in activating the NXXs.
2. Specify the duration of extension being sought and provide a date by which the NXXs in question will be in service.
3. Specify whether any third party has contributed to the codeholder’s inability to activate the NXXs.
4. List the relevant NXXs, by NPA and rate center.
5. Specify whether prior extensions have been granted for the NXXs.
6. Specify the current Part 4 deadline.
7. Specify whether the codeholder has additional numbering resources at the same rate center.
8. Specify whether the codeholder has a current, working interconnection agreement with the dominant carrier.
9. Specify whether the codeholder has a contract for unbundled network elements.
10. Specify whether the codeholder has network information showing that equipment has been purchased and is operational.
11. Specify whether the codeholder has a collocation agreement for the rate center for which it is requesting a Part 4 extension.

Codeholders should be prepared to provide documentation and contact information sufficient to allow the Commission to verify any facts offered in support of their claims of compliance or requests for Part 4 extensions. Alternatively, the carrier may be able to make its case through a record of correspondence submitted with its request. Carriers may avail themselves of the Commission’s procedures regarding protection of trade secret information if they deem it necessary in complying with this process. A codeholder must demonstrate that returning the codes and reapplying at a later date would be harmful to it or an end-use customer. The burden of proof lies with the codeholder requesting the extension and mere statements to that effect will not be acceptable. Codeholders must specify and justify the length of the extension of time needed in which to activate a code. The duration of initial Part 4 extensions will be between 30 and 90 days. The Commission reserves the right to grant initial extensions of greater than 90 days and to grant additional extensions as necessary. Codeholders’ requests for initial extensions in excess of 90 days, or seeking to renew previously granted extensions, will face a heightened degree of scrutiny. NANPA does not track the status of past-due Part 4 confirmations for which the Commission grants an extension. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every codeholder that receives a Part 4 extension to submit a Part 4 confirmation or additional extension request before the end of the extension period. NXXs are subject to immediate reclamation at the end of the extension period unless the required communication is received from the codeholder.

COMMISSION ACTION
Once the Commission receives responses from the codeholders with delinquent Part 4s, it will review them and make a determination at a public meeting regarding whether or not the NXX codes should be reclaimed. Codeholders will be offered the opportunity to appear at such a meeting. After the public meeting, the codeholders will be sent notice of the Commission’s decision informing it that the Commission intends to pursue one of three courses of action. First, the Commission may notify the carrier that reclamation of a particular NXX code is not warranted; consequently, no further action will be taken. Second, the Commission may notify the carrier it has been granted an extension of time within which to activate the NXX code; in this situation, the carrier will be expected to send verification to the Commission when the NXX code is activated and, once that is received, the Commission will not pursue any further action. Third, the Commission may notify the carrier that NXX code reclamation is necessary.

Following notice to the codeholder, the Commission will then inform the NANPA regarding its decision with respect to each NXX code. The NANPA will be informed on a monthly basis regarding the status of the Commission’s investigation of the Maryland NXX codes identified by the NANPA as not being activated within the six-month timeframe. The Commission reserves to itself the right to supplement or revise these procedures from time to time, as necessary.