scope:

Scope and Purpose

This document specifies guidelines and procedures that address the Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report. Service Providers¹ (SPs) are required to submit the Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report to provide permanently disconnected number data for numbering resources from geographic numbering plan area (NPA) codes in the United States and its territories.²

The Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report addresses the need to collect permanently disconnected number data in a single database, the Reassigned Numbers Database (RND). This RND provides valuable information to a User (or User Agent) of the RND by providing the ability to query the database to validate whether a telephone number has the potential to have been reassigned from the consumer the User intends to reach, thus allowing the User to avoid calling a consumer with a reassigned number who may not wish to receive the call.³

These guidelines apply to SPs that have been allocated or have ported in geographic numbering resources from geographic NPAs in the United States and its territories. These guidelines do not apply to SPs allocated geographic number resources from geographic NPAs from other NANP countries, and do not apply to SPs allocated non-geographic 5XX-NXX numbering resources. Finally, these guidelines do not apply to SPs that are Responsible Organizations (RespOrgs) assigned Toll Free Numbers.⁴ Although the RND contains permanently disconnected number data for toll free numbers, the Toll Free Number Administrator (TFNA) has sole responsibility for the reporting of toll free disconnected number data to the RND,⁵ and such reporting is outside the scope of these guidelines.

Assumptions and Constraints

The following are the assumptions and constraints for the Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report:

1. A reporting SP is responsible for providing timely and accurate permanently disconnected number data for US geographic numbering resources that have been allocated to or ported in to it.⁶

2. The Reassigned Numbers Database Administrator (RNDA) shall secure all data received and treat SPspecific data as confidential. Specifically, disaggregated, carrier-specific data shall be treated as confidential and should be exempt from public disclosure under 5 U.S.C. §552 (b)(4).

3. Each reporting SP (or its Service Provider Agent) shall report its disconnected number data by Company Identifier.

4. The RND will compare only the most recent Disconnect Date for a particular telephone number with the Date of Prior Express Consent entered by a User (or its User Agent) in providing a response to a User query of the RND, but will be capable of storing historic views of each Disconnect Date reported to the RND for a particular telephone number, for auditing purposes.

5. SPs shall begin keeping accurate and complete records associated with the Permanent Disconnections of their subscribers on a going-forward basis when this information collection becomes effective on July 27, 2020.⁷ Requiring this recordkeeping before the RND is launched will ensure that reporting SPs are appropriately tracking and have available the information they will need to update the RND once it has launched, as well as a set of initial data spanning some period of time to make the RND more useful from launch. Thereafter, the records of Permanent Disconnections in the RND will increase and become more comprehensive over time.⁸

6. SPs (i.e., Reporting Carriers) who receive Intermediate Numbers from other SPs shall be responsible for reporting permanently disconnected number data for those received numbers to the RND.⁹

Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report Overview and Attributes

The Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report provides a simple mechanism by which a SP is to report permanently disconnected number data for US geographic numbers to the RNDA. The Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report shall be submitted monthly no earlier than 12:00 am ET on the 11^th of the month and no later than 11:59 pm ET on the 15^th of each month. Monthly reporting balances the burden placed on SPs to report the data with the need for Users of the RND to obtain timely information about permanently disconnected numbers. Because the FCC established a minimum aging period of 45 days, there is no need for more frequent reporting.¹⁰

For the purposes of these guidelines, "Permanent Disconnection" occurs when a subscriber permanently has relinquished the US geographic number, or the SP has reversed its assignment of the US geographic number to the subscriber such that the number has been disassociated with the subscriber.¹¹ Permanently disconnected numbers therefore do not include instances where the telephone number is still associated with the subscriber, such as when a subscriber's phone service has been disconnected temporarily for nonpayment of a bill or when a subscriber ports a number to another SP. A ported number remains assigned to and associated with the same subscriber even though a different SP serves the subscriber after the number is ported.

SP submission of the Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report is mandatory.¹² Due to the large amount of permanently disconnected number data to be collected and added to the RND over time, electronic data collection and storage is necessary.

Report Attributes

The following are the Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report attributes:

1. SPs shall submit to the RNDA the Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report by the 15^th day of each month no later than 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST), even if the 15^th falls on a weekend or a holiday. The cutoff date for the data in the monthly file shall include disconnects at least through the 10^th of the month. If there are disconnects that occur after the 10^th of the month, it is acceptable for those disconnects to be included in the next monthly report. Any number that is permanently disconnected after the cutoff for the monthly file shall be included in the following month's file.

2. On the Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report, SPs shall report the most recent date each US geographic telephone number allocated to or ported in to the SP was permanently disconnected.

3. For instructions on completing the Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report, SPs should consult the Job Aid for Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Reporting posted on the RNDA website (see Glossary).

4. SPs shall be able to submit updated Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report files on the 15th of the month that will replace the most recently submitted file for that day.¹³

5. An SP shall be able to upload its permanently disconnected TN data in a manner (i.e., secure FTP, web interface or file upload) that allows its compliance to the requirement to submit permanently disconnected telephone number data no earlier than 12:00 am ET on the 11^th of the month and no later than 11:59 pm ET on the 15th of each month.

6. An SP shall be able to change or update incorrect records subsequent to the 15th of the month via the RNDA Help Desk.

7. An SP shall be provided with a response for RND entries that are unsuccessful, identifying the error and error type (e.g., telephone numbers with less or more than 10 digits or a Disconnect Date in the future).

An SP shall be able to search/query and retrieve on a read-only basis its RND records or Audit Files; such capability will be restricted to search/view/query (including reports) only disconnected number data provided by the SP (or its Service Provider Agent), for the purpose of demonstrating compliance and/or complaint resolution.

Data Submission Methods

The available methods for SPs to submit Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Reports are: electronic file transfer (EFT) via secure File Transfer Protocol (FTP), input via the secure RNDA Graphical User Interface (GUI), or a file upload to the RND system. Standardized electronic format specifications are available on the RNDA website.

¹ Throughout this document, references to Service Providers (SPs) includes their Service Provider Agents as applicable.

² See ¶3 and ¶11 in FCC 18-177, adopted December 12, 2018 and See also 47 CFR §64.1200 (l).

³ See FCC 18-177, ¶3.

⁴ Not all RespOrgs are SPs.

⁵ See FCC 18-177, ¶23

⁶ 47 CFR §64.1200 (l).

⁷ See FCC 18-177, ¶41 and FCC Public Notice DA 20-706, released July 2, 2020,

⁸ FCC 18-177, ¶41

⁹ See ATIS-0300068, North American Numbering Plan Numbering Resource Utilization/Forecast (NRUF) Reporting Guidelines, about reporting Intermediate numbers.

¹⁰ FCC 18-177, ¶40

¹¹ See 47 CFR §64.1200 (l)(3) and FCC 18-177 ¶38.

¹² 47 CFR §52.15 (f)(8) and §64.1200 (l)(2).

¹³ For example, on the 15th of the month a SP submits a Service Provider Disconnected Numbers Report file containing 200 numbers, then realizes that another 100 numbers were missing from it. The SP will be able to submit a replacement file containing all 300 numbers by 11:59 pm that same day.