May 27, 1999
  
  
                   Separate Statement of
                Commissioner Gloria Tristani
  
       Re:  Numbering Resource Optimization.  CC Docket No. 99-200.    
  
  
       This Notice represents an important first step towards promoting efficient number
  utilization and creating standards for number optimization.  The advent of new services
  using our nationwide numbering scheme, the entry of new competitors in the
  telecommunications market, the explosive growth customer of demand for telephone lines
  to support additional services, and the inefficient use of numbers all have contributed to a
  tremendous strain on our nation's numbering resources.  
  
  For some states, this problem has reached crisis proportions.  Illustrating the rapid
  pace of area code exhaust, the California Public Utilities Commission projects that by the
  end of 2002, California will have 41 area codes.  At the end of 1992, the state had only 13
  area codes in use.   In April, the California Public Utilities Commission reported that it had
  approved 7 new area codes in the previous 10 months.  In one instance, immediately after
  the area code split was completed, the code administrator declared the new area code in
  jeopardy of exhausting its numbering resources. 
  
       The Commission must act expeditiously to relieve the burden not only on the state
  commissions developing area code relief plans but most importantly on consumers, who
  face enormous costs and inconvenience each time area code relief is implemented.  The
  carriers that serve these consumers have a vital role to play in forging solutions to
  promote efficient allocation and use of numbering resources.  Accordingly, I urge
  telecommunications carriers and state commissions alike to participate in this proceeding 
  to help craft a solution that will prevent the exhaust of our North American Numbering
  Plan.