With the 207 pool shrinking year after year, regulators have been monitoring carriers’ numbering practices and forecasts to conserve the remaining phone numbers, according to the Maine Public Utilities Commission. Maine’s congressional delegation calls on FCC to protect 207 area code. Maine’s congressional delegation calls on FCC to protect 207 area code
In this Oct. 13, 2020, file picture, a guy is seen using his phone on a wet day in Portland while using a mask to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Robert F. Bukaty/AP is indebted. Regulators in Maine want to know if T-Mobile is holding onto phone numbers from the decreasing 207 pool unnecessarily. That comes as the most recent projection indicates that Maine’s famous 207 area code may run out by the end of 2025. Regulators would then be forced to divide the state into two area codes.
Highlights
“This case is part of our ongoing effort to extend the life of Maine’s single 207 area code,” Chair Philip Bartlett said Wednesday. “Last year we opened a case to look into the numbering practices of Verizon Wireless and we are now doing the same with T-Mobile as they may also be using unrealistic forecasting goals, unnecessarily tying up available phone numbers.” The utilities commission launched a similar probe last August into Verizon’s numbering practices and forecasts. Information about where that probe stands wasn’t immediately available.
The commission wants T-Mobile to supply it with information detailing how it uses its existing pool of numbers and forecasts its expected growth. The request comes after a review of T-Mobile’s requests for fresh 207 phone numbers dating from January 2021 to April of this year.
Just days after that probe launched, Maine’s congressional delegation sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission asking it to work with Maine to avoid the “disruption” of rending the state into two area codes.
