Chairman Kennard's Statement onTelephone Numbering Exhaust Notice

May 27, 1999

STATEMENT OF FCC CHAIRMAN WILLIAM E. KENNARD
TELEPHONE NUMBERING EXHAUST NOTICE

This Notice responds to real and nagging problems that a lot of Americans understand. Every time telephone users must change area codes due to number exhaust, they pay a price – in terms of time, money and frustration. Consumers have to go through the trouble of alerting friends and relatives to the changes, and businesses have to spend money notifying their customers. These costs are real. Through further evaluation of the measures proposed in this Notice, we should be able to significantly reduce or eliminate these problems. If we take responsible actions now, we can avoid confronting a catastrophe in the future.

This Notice is also important for another reason. We can take all the aggressive actions in the world to promote competition, but they will all be for naught if there is an inadequate supply of numbers, or if numbers are distributed and used in an inefficient manner. I will be following the record in this proceeding closely with the aim of forging a lasting solution to this very difficult problem.