The Commission's Customer Account Record Exchange (CARE) rules are designed to facilitate the exchange of customer account information between local exchange carriers and interexchange carriers and to establish carriers' responsibilities with respect to those exchanges. The Commission adopted its CARE rules in a report and order that was released on February 25, 2005. The Commission's CARE rules, which are codified at 47 C.F.R. §§ 64.4000-64.4006, require local and long distance phone service providers to exchange certain customer account information that the Commission has determined is needed by carriers to properly bill their customers and to execute carrier change requests in a timely and efficient manner. The CARE rules went into effect on September 21, 2005. The rules also specify that carriers may use customer account information received from other carriers for billing and provisioning purposes only and may not use it for marketing purposes without a customer's express consent.

In conjunction with the release of the CARE report and order, the Commission also released a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on whether additional data exchange rules are needed for the exchange of customer account information between local service providers when a local phone service customer transitions from one local service provider to another (also known as a "local service migration"). The record of that proceeding closed on August 1, 2005.

For more details about the Commission's CARE proceeding, click on the links to the orders and notices below.

CARE Orders and Notices

12/21/07
Rules And Regulations Implementing Minimum Customer Account Record Exchange Obligations On All Local And Interexchange Carriers.
Report and Order: Word | Acrobat

09/13/06
The Commission adopts minor modifications to section 64.4002 of the its customer account record exchange (CARE) rules.
Order on Reconsideration: Word | Acrobat

04/25/06
FCC Denies Petition for Interim Waiver of CARE Rules.
Order: Word | Acrobat

08/09/05
Commission's Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Seeks Comment on Proposed Modifications and Clarifications to CARE Rules.
Public Notice: Word | Acrobat

02/25/05
FCC Adopts CARE Rules Implementing Minimum Customer Account Obligations on All Local and Interexchange Carriers. FCC Seeks Comment on Issues Relating to the Exchange of Customer Account Information Between Local Exchange Carriers.
Order: Word | Acrobat
News Release (02/10/2005): Word | Acrobat

03/25/04
FCC Seeks Comment on Whether to Impose Mandatory Minimum CARE Obligations on All Local and Interexchange Carriers.
Notice: Word | Acrobat
News Release (03/11/2004): Word | Acrobat