PUBLIC NOTICE
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
445 12th St., S.W.
WASHINGTON, D.C.  20554
                                                                                DA 99-544           
News Media Information 202/418-0500          Recorded listing of releases and texts 202/418-2222

                                        Released:  March 18, 1999
                                
   ALL TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS MUST BEGIN CONTRIBUTING TO
  THE REGIONAL DATABASE COSTS FOR LONG-TERM NUMBER PORTABILITY
                            IN 1999
                                
                      CC Docket No. 95-116
                                
     In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress directed local telephone companies to
offer local telephone number portability in accordance with requirements prescribed by the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  In mandating telephone number portability,
Congress realized that customers would be reluctant to switch to new local telephone service
providers if they were unable to keep their existing telephone numbers.  

     As part of providing the kind of telephone number portability envisioned by Congress, the
FCC implemented a system of shared regional databases.  These databases can transfer a
customer's telephone number between competing local telephone companies, thus enabling
customers to switch local telephone companies without changing their telephone number.

     In addressing the allocation and recovery of the costs of implementing long-term number
portability, the FCC:

                   Determined that the shared industry costs of telephone number portability, such as
          the costs associated with building and operating regional number portability
          databases, would be allocated to all common carriers based on the companies'
          intrastate, interstate, and international end-user telecommunications revenues for
          each region.

                   Directed carriers to comply with the annual requests of the regional database
          administrator for carriers' end-user telecommunications revenues data.

                   Directed carriers that do not have end-user telecommunications revenues to pay
          $100 per year per region as their statutory share of the shared costs.
          
                   Recognized that some but not all carriers have already been paying the regional
          database administrator and, accordingly, allowed the administrator to adjust the
          regional database bills so that what each carrier pays approaches what it would
          have paid had all carriers started paying at the same time.

     All telecommunications carriers must soon begin contributing to the costs of the regional
databases.  Although some carriers have already been paying the regional database administrator
based on temporary agreements, the Communications Act requires that "[t]he cost of establishing
. . . . number portability shall be borne by all telecommunications carriers on a competitively
neutral basis as determined by the Commission."

     To apply the statutory mandate and the FCC's rule that all telecommunications carriers
contribute to the costs of the regional databases, Lockheed Martin IMS, the administrator of all
seven number portability regional databases, will begin collecting regional end-user
telecommunications revenues information from all telecommunications carriers in March, 1999. 
All telecommunications carriers must report their end-user telecommunications revenues in each
number portability region to Lockheed Martin, and pay their allocated portion of the costs of the
number portability regional database in each region where the carrier operates.  Carriers will
report their regional telecommunications end-user revenues (or the lack of end-user revenues) on
a worksheet, FCC Form 487, supplied by Lockheed Martin.  OMB has approved this information
collection through FCC Form 487.  Carriers must complete and return their completed FCC
Forms 487 to Lockheed Martin by April 16, 1999.  Carriers should be notified of their allocated
portion of the shared number portability costs in the Third Quarter of 1999, and their first
payments will be due in the Fourth Quarter of 1999.

     The FCC's rules implementing local number portability further Congress' goal of bringing
competition to the local telephone marketplace.  The elimination of a major barrier to competition
-- the inability of customers to retain the same telephone number when  switching from one local
telephone company to another -- will reduce prices in local telephone service, motivate telephone
companies to provide high quality service and to deploy advanced services, and provide more
overall choices for customers. 

     For further information contact Lloyd Collier, 202-418-1520.

                              -FCC-