New regs for Monday: Phone numbers, transmission systems and migratory birds

Monday’s edition of the Federal Register contains new rules from the Federal Communications Commission to improve telephone number transfers, a rule from the Energy Department to safeguard transmission systems from the sun and a notice that that Fish and Wildlife Service is considering rules to mitigate incidental killings of migratory birds.

Here’s what to look for:

Phone numbers: The Federal Communications Commission will issue a final rule to improve a consumer’s ability to keep their existing phone number when changing telephone service providers.

The process, known as telephone number porting, is accomplished by carriers working together and following a uniform set of flow charts, referred to as the “LNP provisioning flows.” The FCC’s rule revises the existing process for canceling a number port request, clarifies the timeline for reusing disconnected ported numbers and stops new service providers from prematurely activating ports.

The adopted changes are recommendations of the North American Numbering Council (NANC), a federal advisory committee for telephone number administration.

The rule will take effect in 30 days.

Transmission systems: The Energy Department is considering a rule that would require electric companies to assess whether their transmission systems are vulnerable to geomagnetic disturbance events (GMDs), which occur when the sun ejects charged particles that interact with and cause changes in the earth’s magnetic fields.

The agency said entities that do not meet certain performance requirements, based on the results of their vulnerability assessments, must develop a plan to achieve the requirements.

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed rule.

Migratory birds: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) plans to evaluate the potential environmental impact of inadvertent harming, killing, disturbance or destruction of migratory birds, their nests or eggs. 

The FWS said it is considering issuing rules to address this incidental taking of migratory birds. The rule-making would establish appropriate standards for any such regulatory approach to ensure that incidental taking of migratory birds is appropriately mitigated

The public has 60 days to comment.