STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL
Re: Numbering Policies for Modern Communications, WC Docket No. 13-97, IP-Enabled Services, 
WC Docket No. 04-36, Telephone Number Requirements for IP-Enabled Services Providers, WC 
Docket No. 07-243, Telephone Number Portability, CC Docket No. 95-116, Developing a 
Unified Intercarrier Compensation Regime, CC Docket No. 01-92, Connect America Fund, WC 
Docket No. 10-90, Numbering Resource Optimization, CC Docket No. 99-200.
It was two decades ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  My parents in Hartford, 
Connecticut announced that the childhood telephone number I had always known would change.  Area 
code 203 was no more.  Welcome to area code 860.  This was hardly a big deal in the history of 
communications.  But it was the first time I remember thinking about the link between place and number 
and community and identity. 
What felt strange twenty years ago now seems quaint.  Today, forty-four percent of households 
have cut the cord and use only wireless service.  In my office, that percentage is a lot higher—and the 
numbers associated with our devices are a jumble of area codes from across the country.  We are severing
place and number like never before and the platforms we use to communicate are evolving faster than 
ever before—not only from wireline to wireless, but also from low-speed to high-speed.  Beyond that, 
they are multiplying into new forms, with a range of messaging applications built into social networks
and applications that may in time turn into new communications hubs.  
With this rush of change, one thing is clear—it’s time for the Commission to change, too.  That’s 
why today’s decision is the right one.  
Even better, it puts in place an idea we incubated here in our very own policy sandbox.  Two 
years ago, we launched a trial process to see if it was technically feasible for interconnected VoIP 
providers to obtain access to numbering resources directly.  The trial provided a proof-of-concept.  It 
helped guide today’s effort to update the authorization process so that more communications providers 
can access numbering resources and develop more innovative services.  In addition, this effort will 
improve access to a key input for 911 emergency services.  
The mechanics of this proceeding are complex.  But at its core this decision is a simple reminder 
of how our networks are in a period of profound change.  The communications devices in my childhood 
home no longer look anything like what they did twenty years ago.  We can reach out and connect in
ways that were unthinkable back when the area code I always knew was changed.  This is change for the 
good.  Our work here today is, too.  It has my full support.