******************************************************** NOTICE ******************************************************** This document was converted from WordPerfect to ASCII Text format. Content from the original version of the document such as headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, graphics, and page numbers will not show up in this text version. All text attributes such as bold, italic, underlining, etc. from the original document will not show up in this text version. Features of the original document layout such as columns, tables, line and letter spacing, pagination, and margins will not be preserved in the text version. If you need the complete document, download the WordPerfect version or Adobe Acrobat version, if available. ***************************************************************** Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of ) ) Pierce Telephone Company, Inc. Request ) for Extension of Waiver of the Four-Digit) NSD File No. 98-51 Carrier Identification Code (CIC)) Implementation Schedule ) ) ORDER Adopted: April 9, 1998 Released: April 9, 1998 By the Chief, Network Services Division, Common Carrier Bureau: I. INTRODUCTION 1. Carrier identification codes (CICs) are numeric codes that enable local exchange carriers (LECs) providing interstate interexchange access services to identify the interstate interexchange carrier (IXC) that the originating caller wishes to use to transmit its interstate call. LECs use the CICs to route traffic to the proper IXC and to bill for the interstate access service provided. CICs facilitate competition by enabling callers to use the services of telecommunications service providers either by presubscription or by dialing a carrier access code (CAC) which incorporates that carrier's unique Feature Group D CIC. Originally, CICs were unique three-digit codes (XXX) and CACs were five-digit codes incorporating the CIC (10XXX). 2. On April 11, 1997, in the CICs Second Report and Order, the Commission and the industry agreed to expand Feature Group D CICs from three to four digits as the supply of three- digit codes was exhausted. The industry agreed that as the expansion from three to four-digit CICs occurred, and as carriers replaced their five-digit CACs with seven-digit CACs, a transition, or permissive dialing period, was needed. On October 22, 1997, in the CICs Order on Reconsideration, the Commission created a "two-step" transition during which three and four- digit Feature Group D CICs co-exist. The CICs Order on Reconsideration mandated that all LECs providing equal access complete switch changes to recognize four-digit CICs by January 1, 1998, the end of the first phase. The second phase, which ends on June 30, 1998, is intended to allow interexchange carriers time to prepare their networks for, and educate their customers about, the replacement of three-digit CICs by four-digit CICs. After June 30, 1998, only four- digit CICs and seven-digit CACs will be recognized. The Commission also affirmed its decision in the CICs Second Report and Order not to grandfather the use of three-digit CICs and five-digit CACs that are in use during the transition. 3. Pierce Telephone Company, Inc. (Pierce), a small, rural, incumbent LEC, filed a petition for waiver of the CICs Second Report and Order's January 1, 1998, conversion deadline. Stating that it was technically infeasible for it to comply with the January 1, 1998, conversion deadline, Pierce requested an extension until May 1, 1998. In an Order released December 3, 1997, we found that Pierce had demonstrated the special circumstances meriting a waiver of the January 1, 1998, conversion deadline and we granted Pierce's request for extension of the deadline until May 1, 1998. 4. Pierce has filed a request to extend its waiver of the conversion deadline from May 1, 1998, until June 30, 1998. In this Order, we conclude that Pierce's request should be granted and we extend Pierce's switch conversion deadline for four-digit CIC capability to June 30, 1998. II. DISCUSSION 5. An applicant for waiver must demonstrate that special circumstances warrant a deviation from the general rule and that such deviation will serve the public interest. In evaluating Pierce's request for extension of its waiver, we have weighed the following factors: Pierce's diligence in attempting to upgrade its switches within the timeframe provided under the original waiver; the impact of availability of products required to accomplish the upgrade on Pierce's ability to meet the original waiver deadline; and the impact of an extension of the conversion deadline on the IXCs served by Pierce's switches and on customers' ability to reach IXCs through CAC dialing. 6. We find that the request for extension of waiver filed by Pierce demonstrates the special circumstances meriting a grant of the extension. Pierce has diligently worked to replace its switches by the May 1, 1998, deadline. Pierce began efforts to purchase the operating system software with four-digit CIC capability in May 1997. Pierce purchased the software upgrade from Nortel between December 1997, and March 1998, but was recently informed by Nortel that it could not provide the software until April 20, 1998, and the software would not be installed until June 5, 1998. 7. Second, we conclude that Pierce has demonstrated that the products needed to accomplish the upgrade of its network are not readily available from switch manufacturers and that this fact has significantly affected its ability to meet the May 1, 1998, deadline. Pierce states that Nortel advised Pierce that due to its long list of customers waiting for the operating system upgrade, the new software would not be installed until June, 1998. 8. Third, we find that the impact of an extension of the conversion deadline on the IXCs and customers served by Pierce does not outweigh the burden on Pierce that would be imposed by a denial of its request for further extension. We recognize that the grant of Pierce's extension will eliminate the time we provided for IXCs to prepare their networks and to educate their customers, as anticipated by the two-step transition created in our Order on Reconsideration. We find, however, that the technical and economic burden on Pierce that would be imposed by a denial of the extension outweighs the burden to the IXCs and their customers. We note that only IXCs that have been issued a four-digit CIC (who cannot currently receive CAC calls originating with the LECs' customers) will be affected by grant of the waiver. Pierce's network can, and will continue to, accept CAC calling for IXCs with three-digit CICs until the transition ends on June 30, 1998. Although we recognize the potential anticompetitive effects of the dialing disparity and seek to minimize them, we believe that these effects are outweighed by the economic and technical burdens likely to be imposed on Pierce by a failure to extend the conversion deadline. 9. We find that the amount of additional time requested by Pierce, from May 1, 1998, until June 30, 1998, to be reasonable. On June 30, 1998, the permissive dialing period will end. The grant of Pierce's requested waiver will not affect or interfere with the end of the permissive dialing period on June 30, 1998. We conclude, as noted above, that the burden on Pierce that would be imposed by a denial of the extension outweighs the burden to IXCs and their customers. Thus, we grant Pierce's request for extension of the waiver extending the conversion deadline from May 1, 1998, to June 30, 1998. 10. In granting Pierce's request for an extension of its waiver, we note that any further extension, even for the slightest amount of time, will cause disruption to callers if all equal access LEC end offices are not converted to recognize four-digit CICs once the permissive dialing period has ended on June 30, 1998. Thus, we will scrutinize closely any request for further extension and will only grant an extension upon a clear demonstration of compelling circumstances. Finally, we emphasize that LECs to whom we grant conversion extensions must comply with the Commission's intercept message requirement described in the CICs Order on Reconsideration. III. ORDERING CLAUSES 11. IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to Section 1.3 of the Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R.  1.3, and authority delegated in Section 0.91 of the Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R.  0.91, and Section 0.291 of the Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R.  0.291, that the Petition for Limited Waiver of Pierce Telephone Company, Inc., IS GRANTED, by extending for it the switch conversion deadline for four-digit CIC capability from May 1, 1998, until June 30, 1998. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Geraldine A. Matise Chief, Network Services Division Common Carrier Bureau