NP Overview

Number Pooling

Studies done by NeuStar indicate that unless something is done to preserve 10-digit telephone numbers in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) they will exhaust sometime between years 2006 and 2016. The driving factor creating this number exhaustion is number utilization. Industry research indicates that telecommunication carriers currently utlilize less than 50% of the telephone numbers within their inventory.

In March of 2000 and reaffirmed in a second report and order in December of 2000, the FCC adopted new policies and rules to reduce the need for new area codes, avoiding the inconvenience, costs and confusion associated with changes in area codes for consumers and businesses. State regulatory commissions are frequently implementing new area codes, and these new policies and rules will promote the more efficient use of these numbering resources, and help states in better managing new area codes.

Additionally, the new rules will make the existing telephone numbering system more compatible with the increasingly competitive telecommunications environment. The rapid use of telephone numbering resources is being driven by several factors, including the increase in the number of new competitors, the introduction of new technologies, such as wireless telephones, the spread of new services, such as Internet, data, and facsimile services, and the way our numbering resources are currently managed.

After the FCC examined and sought comments on several administrative and technical measures for optimizing the use of numbering resources, a number of measures were authorized, which promote more efficient use of numbering resources. Specifically, the new measures will ensure that:

	Consumers are protected from the expense and inconvenience that result from the implementation of frequent new area codes by state regulatory commissions;
	The limited telephone numbering resources in the North American Numbering Plan are used more efficiently; and,
	All carriers have the numbering resources they need to complete in the rapidly growing telecommunications marketplace.

In the rules adopted by the FCC, national standards were created to address numbering resource optimization, including:

	A technical solution for allocating numbers in blocks of 1,000, rather than 10,000 ("thousands-block number pooling"), wherever possible, and establishes a plan for national rollout of mandatory thousands-block number pooling by carriers with local number portability (LNP) capability. Wireless carriers who become LNP-capable on November 24, 2002 will be required to begin participating in pooling at that time.
	Administrative measures that will allow the FCC to monitor more closely the way numbering resources are used within the U.S. These measures will link a carrier’s ability to obtain numbering resources more closely to its actual need for telephone numbers to serve its customers. Specifically, the FCC adopts an uniform set of numbering status definitions, objective criteria, and enhanced data reporting to increase carrier accountability and incentive to use numbers efficiently.
	Numbering resource reclamation requirements to ensure the return of unused numbers to the inventory for assignment to other carriers. Additionally, the new rules will mandate that carriers, to the extent possible, assign numbering resources within thousands-blocks sequentially to facilitate reclamation and the establishment of thousands-block number pools.

In addition, the Wireless Number Pooling Sub-Committee along with the Pooling Administrator, NeuStar have developed procedures for Native Block Pooling for wireless carriers. Native Block Pooling will allow a wireless carrier to participate in 1k block pooling now, prior to the November 24, 2002 deadline. For more information please e-mail a request to contactus@raddcomm.com.