833 Toll-Free Code Opening Information
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Based on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order that was released on Friday, April 21, 2017, Somos is preparing operationally to support the 833 Toll-Free Code Opening in SMS/800 Platform. The 833 Toll-Free Code will be opened on Saturday, June 3, 2017 at 12:00 PM ET (11:00 AM CT). Below you will find specific information regarding the activities associated with the 833 Toll-Free Code opening. These activities include the following:
- Information regarding the 833 NPA Affiliation and the new FCC pre-code opening procedures to be used for the 833 Toll-Free Code opening
- Dates of the freeze periods for new requests with the SMS/800 Platform.
- And a schedule of activities during the 833 Toll-Free Code opening day.
Due to the anticipated volume of 833 Number Search and Reservation transactions, Responsible Organization (Resp Org) support is requested in implementing several recommendations. The recommendations that are listed towards the bottom of this page may help reduce potentially adverse impacts on the SMS/800 Platform during the 833 Toll-Free Code opening.
The FCC has 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 – a copy of the order can be accessed here.
The FCC instituted an affiliation requirement. Affiliated Resp Org Entities (Affiliated group) are treated as a single Resp Org Entity for purposes of this code opening. In anticipation of this, Somos alerted Resp Orgs of their Affiliated groups in March 2017.
The FCC developed a new “pre-code opening” procedure.
The FCC instituted an affiliation requirement. Affiliated Resp Org Entities (Affiliated group) are treated as a single Resp Org Entity for purposes of this code opening. In anticipation of this, Somos alerted Resp Orgs of their Affiliated 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 the 833 NPA that the Resp Org desires to obtain. Resp Org users with Primary Contact, Company Administrator(s) and/or Resp Org Change (ROC) Admin permissions will be able to submit this list on behalf of their Resp Org’s Affiliated group on the Somos Portal Website (portal.somos.com). After logging into the website successfully, please navigate to the "Resources" section to access the Initial 833 TFN Request List page.
- Resp Orgs can only submit one request per Affiliated group.
- This first request submitted will be treated as the Resp Org’s request. The Somos Portal Website will not allow additional requests to be submitted or edit an existing request.
- 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.
- 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 its 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. Please note: The 833 TFNs requested by a single Resp Org will be in a Reserved status for the standard 45 days.
- To support the Pre-Code Opening procedure as directed by the FCC, the Resp Org Reservation Limit of 2,000 TFNs in a Reserved status will be raised to 4,000 TFNs through Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 11:00 AM CT.
To help prepare our Responsible Organizations for the opening of the newest Toll-Free Code, Somos hosted a webinar to discuss the new FCC procedures. A copy of the presentation slides and webinar FAQs are now available for download.
When the 833 Toll-Free Code is opened on Saturday, June 3, 2017, the Starting NPA for Random Search field will be changed to the 833 NPA. With this field change, random number searches performed by users will return numbers beginning with 833.
As with all Toll-Free NPAs, the following NXXs in the 833 Toll-Free Code will remain closed for reservation:
As with all Toll-Free NPAs, the following NXXs in the 833 Toll-Free Code will remain closed for reservation:
- 833-555
- 833-911
- 833-0xx and 833-1xx (000-199)
- Line Numbers in 833-250 from 0000-1499
System Time Synchronization – Users can synchronize their internal systems to the time displayed and used in the SMS/800 Platform by referencing the “Date/Time Last Refreshed” field on the Reservation Limit (REL) screen in the Web Based Access (WBA) application and the NOW field in the 3270 application. Users accessing the SMS/800 Platform via the Mechanized Generic Interface (MGI) should refer to the screens noted above in either WBA or 3270 application for the current time.
Response Times – SMS/800 Platform is implementing measures to limit the anticipated impacts to the SMS/800 Platform response times. It is expected that the workload submitted by users on 833 Toll-Free Code opening day will be significantly larger than normal and the response times could be longer than those normally experienced during peak processing periods.
- Due to the anticipated response times during the 833 Toll-Free Code opening, beginning on Saturday, June 3, 2017 from 10:50 AM CT to 3:00 PM CT, the Pre-Reservation Time will be increased from the standard 1 minute to 10 minutes and the Extended Lockout will be increased from the standard 15 minutes to 20 minutes. The Pre-Reservation Time and the Extended Lockout Time fields are displayed on the Reservation Limit (REL) screen in the Web Based Access (WBA) and the 3270 applications. The Pre-Reservation Time parameter indicates the maximum duration that a searched number will be held (locked) for the first Resp Org that searched for that number. The Extended Lockout parameter indicates when the SMS/800 Platform will time-out while attempting to process a Reservation request before sending a response back to the Resp Org.
System Utilization Reminder – The 800 Service Management Systems (SMS/800) Functions Tariff allows a Resp Org to utilize SMS/800 Platform at 2.5 times their percentage of the total Working Toll-Free Numbers or 5% of the SMS/800 Platform’s CPU capacity, whichever is larger. Please note: During the 833 Toll-Free Code opening, the Mechanized Generic Interface (MGI) Transaction Limit Policy of no more than 5 user-initiated MGI transactions per Entity per second should continue to be followed. Resp Orgs exceeding the CPU capacity or MGI transactions during the 833 Toll-Free Code opening may be temporarily suspended from accessing the SMS/800 Platform. Federal Communication Commission (FCC) requirements also impose the following limits:
- The FCC has rules as to how many TFNs a Resp Org can have reserved but not yet assigned in order to prevent hoarding. Resp Orgs can have TFNs in a Reserved status per Entity up to 2,000 TFNs, or 7.5% of their working TFNs, whichever is greater, but not more than 3% of the available spare pool.
- To support the Pre-Code Opening procedures as directed by the FCC, the Resp Org Reservation Limit of 2,000 TFNs in a Reserved status will be raised to 4,000 TFNs through Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 11:00 AM CT. The Reservation limit increase addresses the scenario where Resp Orgs could have up to 2,000 numbers in a Reserved status in existing NPAs (such as 800, 888, etc.) right before the Toll-Free Code opening, and without increasing this limit, those Resp Orgs would then be locked out from reserving any 833 TFNs.
Messages – Normal number search and reservation response messages will be returned by SMS/800 Platform.
Due to the significant effort required by the SMS/800 Platform support organizations in the time frame leading up to the 833 Toll-Free Code opening, a freeze period will be implemented in the SMS/800 Platform Production Environment (IMSE1) for adding new Mechanized Generic Interface (MGI) users and connections, as well as all Network Changes, adding new Service Control Points (SCPs), processing Batch Updates, and Mass Changes. Any requests received prior to the freeze period start date will be processed. Please reference the following table for the scheduled activity and freeze period.
| Freeze Periods | ||
| Scheduled Activity | Start Date | End Date |
| New MGIs | May 3, 2017 | June 8, 2017 |
| Network Changes | May 3, 2017 | June 8, 2017 |
| New SCPs | May 3, 2017 | June 8, 2017 |
| Batch Updates and Mass Changes | June 1, 2017 | June 5, 2017 |
The SMS/800 Platform Production Environment (IMSE1) will undergo a 3 hour and 50 minute downtime on Saturday, June 3, 2017 from 7:00 AM CT to 10:50 AM CT. This downtime will allow SMS/800 Platform to “quiesce” and allow Somos’ support personnel to prepare SMS/800 Platform for the 833 Toll-Free Code opening. Resp Orgs are encouraged to avoid the submission of large Customer Record updates immediately prior to, during and immediately following the 833 Toll-Free Code opening timeframe. Additionally, any previous Number Search and Reservation requests submitted by Resp Orgs that were not processed prior to the scheduled downtime will be cleared from the SMS/800 Platform. This will allow the SMS/800 Platform to be available for new 833 Number Search and Reservation requests during the 833 Toll-Free Code opening. Please reference the following table for a list of scheduled activities and times for the 833 Toll-Free Code opening day.
| 833 Toll-Free Code Opening Day Activity Schedule | |
| Time | Activities |
| 7:00 AM CT | Schedule Downtime Begins |
| 7:00 AM - 10:50 AM CT |
SMS/800 Platform System Changes Performed:
|
| 10:50 AM CT |
Scheduled Downtime Ends
|
| 11:00 AM CT |
New 833 Toll-Free Code Available:
|
| 12:00 PM CT | SMS/800 Platform System Changes Performed:
|
| 3:00 PM CT |
SMS/800 Platform System Changes Performed:
|
Please note: During the 833 Toll-Free Code opening, all Customer Record downloads in all NPAs (including 833) will be temporarily suspended until 12:00 PM CT, in an effort to allow SMS/800 Platform to process the Number Search and Reservation requests associated with the 833 Toll-Free Code opening. During this time period, the submission of any transactions related to Toll-Free Numbers in the 800, 888, 877, 866, 855 or 844 NPAs will be rejected and an appropriate error message will be returned to the user.
All Resp Orgs are urged to implement the following recommendations to minimize adverse impacts on the SMS/800 Platform during the 833 Toll-Free Code opening:
- Users planning to participate in the 833 Toll-Free Code opening activity should verify their User ID access prior to the 833 Toll-Free Code opening. As a reminder, passwords expire every 60 days.
- Resp Orgs should verify their networks connections and access into SMS/800 Platform to ensure they are working properly prior to the start of the freeze period.
- “Wildcard” searches should be limited to the line number level within an NPA-NXX. Submitting broad “wildcard” searches will unnecessarily utilize limited system resources and delay the processing of requests.
- Users should perform a combined search and reservation request in 1 message, rather than in 2 separate messages, to avoid losing a pre-reservation lock on a number previously searched, as well as to reduce the level of system activity.
- Continuous repeated number search requests to check the status of a particular number should be avoided. If a ‘non-spare’ status is returned, please do not continue to request status information for that number. Submitting multiple requests for the ‘non-spare’ Toll-Free Numbers will unnecessarily utilize limited system resources and delay the processing of subsequent requests.
- Mechanized Generic Interface (MGI) users are requested to modify their “resend timer” to account for longer response times. If possible, turn off or set the “resend timer” to its maximum value. This will eliminate unnecessary MGI link congestion.
- The normal ‘Issue Reporting’ processes will be available to Resp Orgs during the 833 Toll-Free Code opening. If any issues are encountered during the 833 Toll-Free Code opening they should be communicated to the Help Desk.
For assistance during the 833 Toll-Free Code opening, please call or text the Help Desk at 844.HEY.SOMOS (844.439.7666), Option 1.