Insights

Important 833 Code Opening Information

Apr 24, 2017

On Friday, April 21, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its order for the 833 Toll-Free Code Opening. As the Toll-Free Neutral Administrator, Somos will implement the order as directed by the FCC for the 833 Toll-Free code opening. There are several new procedures that the FCC instituted for this code opening. Please read the FCC order carefully.  Please review the order below:  Federal Communications Commission DA 17-382.

Some of the highlights include:

• The FCC instituted an affiliation requirement. Affiliated Resp Org Entities are treated as a single Resp Org Entity for purposes of this code opening. In anticipation of this, Somos, Inc. alerted Resp Orgs of their affiliation groups in March 2017.
• The FCC developed a new “pre-code opening” procedure.
• Beginning on Sunday, May 14, 2017 at 11:00 AM CT, Resp Orgs will submit a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file containing up to 2,000 Toll-Free Numbers (TFNs) in NPA 833 that the Resp Org desires to obtain.
• Affiliated Resp Orgs can only submit one request per affiliated group. This first one submitted will be treated as the Resp Org’s request. All others will be rejected.
• The last date to submit a request list is Friday, May 19, 2017 at 11:00 AM CT. No requests will be honored after that time.
• Requests may be submitted by logging into the Somos Portal Website (portal.somos.com), selecting the “Resources” section and then clicking on the “Initial 833 TFN Request List” menu item. The file upload instructions and requirements may be viewed by selecting the Help link on the page. 
• Any 833 TFN requested by more than one Resp Org will be considered “mutually exclusive” and will be set aside. The FCC will initiate a proceeding to consider whether to adopt a new number assignment method or to continue with the first come, first serve method for mutually exclusive numbers. Somos will alert Resp Orgs when the FCC initiates it’s proceeding.
• 833 TFNs requested by a single Resp Org will be assigned to that Resp Org shortly before the 833 code officially opens on Saturday June 3, 2017 at 11:00 AM CT. At that time, the rest of the 833 TFNs will be available on a first come, first serve basis.
• The FCC will raise the Resp Org Reservation Limit of 2,000 TFNs in a Reserved status to 4,000 for a period beginning on Saturday, June 3, 2017 at 11:00 AM CT and ending on Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 11:00 AM CT.

Somos, Inc. will be conducting webinars on the new FCC procedures. To learn more, please click here!