Federal Communications Commission "FCC/DA XX-XXX" DA 18-864 Released: August 21, 2018 WIRELINE COMPETITION BUREAU ANNOUNCES EFFECTIVE DATES OF AMENDMENTS TO DIALING PARITY AND NUMBER PORTABILITY DATABASE QUERY RULES WC Docket Nos. 17-244; 13-97 On July 13, 2018, the Federal Communications Commission released a Report and Order that modified requirements for conducting queries of the number portability database and extended forbearance from toll interexchange dialing parity rules to competitive local exchange carriers (2018 NNP Order). See Nationwide Number Portability et al., WC Docket No. 17-244, 13-97, Report and Order (2018). The 2018 NNP Order eased these requirements in order to encourage the development of nationwide number portability while eliminating outdated rules. On August 6, 2018, the Commission received Office of Management and Budget (OMB) concurrence that the 2018 NNP Order was a non-major rulemaking under the Congressional Review Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-121. The announcement of OMB approval of the rules was sent to the Federal Register on August 14, 2018. As ordered in the 2018 NNP Order, all amendments to the rules contained in the order will take effect 30 days after publication of the summary of the order in the Federal Register. 2018 NNP Order, para. 30. Since the Order was published in the Federal Register on August 20, 2018, See Federal Communications Commission, Nationwide Number Portability, et al., Report and Order, 83 Fed. Reg. 42045 (August 20, 2018). these rules will become effective on September 19, 2018. Specifically, the following provisions will take effect: · Competitive local exchange carriers will receive the same forbearance from the toll interexchange dialing parity requirements that incumbent local exchange carriers received in 2015; · Rules that existed solely to implement the above dialing parity requirements are eliminated; · Carriers are now expressly allowed to query the number portability database even if they are not the second-to-last carrier to handle the call. For further information, please contact Sherwin Siy, Wireline Competition Bureau, Competition Policy Division, at (202) 418-2783 or via e-mail at sherwin.siy@fcc.gov. - FCC - 2