STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI
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 Service 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; Petition of 
Vonage Holdings Corp. for Limited Waiver of Section 52.15(g)(2)(i) of the Commission’s Rules 
Regarding Access to Numbering Resources; Petition of TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. and 
HBF Group, Inc. for Waiver of Part 52 of the Commission’s Rules.
Today we seek to ease access to phone numbers for innovative online companies and new 
competitors, lowering the costs of competition and removing barriers to innovation.
Today’s notice continues our ongoing agency-wide effort to modernize our rules for today’s 
broadband marketplace, while promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring public safety.
We developed the country’s first National Broadband Plan, providing a strategic roadmap for the 
transition to all-IP networks. 
As recommended in the plan, we’ve approved landmark reforms of USF, and overhauled 
intercarrier compensation. We’ve sped the transition to next-generation 911. And we recently launched an 
agency-wide Technology Transitions Task Force to provide recommendations to modernize the 
Commission’s policies.
Building on this work, this item proposes to reduce barriers to innovation and competition for 
innovative online providers of voice services.  
Today these providers generally have to obtain telephone numbers through intermediate 
providers, raising costs and creating potential gatekeepers to the deployment of new services.    
Removing these barriers has the potential to deliver real benefits to consumers. 
It could help improve call quality thanks to fewer hand-offs for calls, and promote deployment of 
HD voice services. And it could fuel development of other innovative new products. 
Already developers have used VoIP technology to develop new security features like automated 
phone calls or text messages when an online user attempts to change sensitive data in a mobile app. 
Innovative VoIP technology is also being used to rapidly deploy call centers, for example for 
political campaigns, and to integrate automatic voice and text features into web sites.
We can only guess what’s next. 
As we strive to unleash these innovations and consumer benefits, we have to make sure that calls 
continue to complete reliably, that we don’t create new opportunities for providers to game the 
intercarrier compensation system, and that we safeguard against number exhaust.  
Today’s notice asks critical questions on all these issues.
These questions are also why we’re proceeding with a narrowly-tailored trial, to test technical 
issues that have been previously raised in the record. 
This trial will provide a small pool of numbers to test giving VoIP providers direct access. 
We have safeguards in place if problems arise, and a robust reporting and public comment 
process.
Some have argued that a technical trial is premature. I disagree.  
This access to numbers proceeding has been going on since 2005, with many of the same 
comments and replies traded between parties time and again.  
But the record we’ve received to date too often has simply been filled by hypothetical concerns 
answered with hypothetical solutions.  
It’s time for some data. The trial we adopt today is consistent with the data-driven approach 
we’ve adopted agency-wide, it will help us protect consumers, and I’m glad we’re moving it forward.  
Thank you to the entire Wireline Bureau team for their excellent work on this item, and to the 
Technology Transitions Task Force as well for their assistance.