Federal Communications Commission	DA 21-1069

Before the
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554


In the Matter of

Telephone Number Portability

Numbering Resource Optimization
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CC Docket No. 95-116

CC Docket No. 99-200

ORDER

Adopted:  August 29, 2021		Released:  August 29, 2021

By the Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau:

1. On Sunday, August 28, 2021, Hurricane Ida struck the Gulf Coast of the United States as a Category 4 hurricane and is expected to cause significant damage in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. See Bulletin, U.S. National Weather Service, Forecast to Strengthen Rapidly Before Landfall…Life-Threatening Storm Surge, Potentially Catastrophic Wind Damage and Flooding Rainfall Expected to Impact the Northern Gulf Cost Beginning Sunday Morning, (Aug. 28, 2021), https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT4+shtml/282353.shtml. See also. FEMA, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Emergency Declaration for Mississippi (Aug. 18, 2021), https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20210829/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-emergency-declaration-mississippi (last visited Aug. 29, 2021) and President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Emergency Declaration for Louisiana (Aug. 27, 2021),  https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20210827/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-emergency-declaration-louisiana (last visited Aug. 29, 2021).
  Hurricane Ida is expected to cause massive flooding, resulting in significant property damage and personal injury.  It is also expected to cause substantial service disruptions and outages in telephone service in Louisiana and Mississippi and its effects are expected to continue for at least the next several days. Id.
  For these reasons, on our own motion, we are granting a temporary waiver of the Commission’s numbering rules to allow carriers in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, and the numbering administrators that support them, to port telephone numbers geographically outside of rate centers during this period of service disruption. 
2. Pursuant to the Commission’s plenary jurisdiction over numbering matters, See 47 U.S.C. § 251(e)(1).
 the Commission has adopted numbering rules and policies designed to ensure that carriers have access to numbering resources when needed to serve customers. See generally 47 CFR §§ 52.15 et seq.
  Among other things, the Commission’s numbering rules require certain types of carriers to offer local number portability (“LNP”). See 47 CFR §§ 52.23, 52.31.
  The Commission’s number portability rules, however, do not extend to location or service portability. See Telephone Number Portability, CC Docket No. 95-116, First Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 11 FCC Rcd 8352, 8447, para. 181 (1996).  See also Telephone Number Portability, CC Docket No. 95-116, Memorandum Opinion and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 18 FCC Rcd 23697, 23706, para. 22 (2003).  
  However, due to the substantial damage to telecommunications systems expected to be caused by Hurricane Ida in Louisiana and Mississippi, carriers may need to port numbers to destinations outside the affected rate centers.  Section 1.3 of our rules authorizes the Commission to suspend, revoke, amend, or waive a Commission rule for good cause shown. 47 CFR § 1.3.  This rule provides that “[a]ny provision of the rules may be waived by the Commission on its own motion or on petition if good cause therefore is shown.”  Id.
  We recognize that telecommunications service must be restored to the hurricane victims as quickly as possible, and we find that waiver of the Commission’s local number portability and number assignment rules is a reasonable and practical means for doing so.  Accordingly, we find that due to this natural disaster, good cause exists for waiving these rules and that such waiver is in the public interest.

3. We therefore waive the Commission’s local number portability and number assignment rules to the extent necessary to permit carriers to port customers’ numbers to remote locations, on a temporary basis.  This waiver applies to carriers to the extent that they provide service in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, or to carriers assisting affected carriers in their efforts to continue or restore service.  This waiver also applies to the numbering administrators, to the extent necessary to support carriers in the affected areas.  The waiver is in effect beginning August 29, 2021, for ninety days, until November 27, 2021.  If carriers are unable to resume service on a normal basis in areas affected by Hurricane Ida after this time period has elapsed, they should request additional relief from the Wireline Competition Bureau.  
4. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to sections 4(i), 251(b)(2), and 251(e) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. §§ 154(i), 251(b)(2) and 251(e), and sections 0.291 and 1.3 of the Commission’s rules, 47 CFR §§ 0.291, 1.3, that our local number portability and number assignment rules, contained in part 52 of the Commission’s rules, are waived to the extent herein described.

					FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION




						Kris A. Monteith
						Chief
Wireline Competition Bureau


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