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Two reports providing significant information regarding utilization of telephone number resources were released in March.

On March 31st, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), Neustar, released the NANPA 2008 Annual Report. The document includes both historical and forward-looking information on the assignment of NPA codes and central office codes. Key data include:

• A total of three new NPAs were introduced in 2008: NPAs 581 and 587 went into effect as overlays on September 19th in Quebec and Alberta, respectively; and NPA 657 went into effect in California as an overlay on September 23rd.
• Nine NPAs are currently scheduled for activation. Those with 2009 in service dates include: NPAs 385 (UT), 442 (CA), 681 (WV), and 747 (CA); with, NPAs 343 (Ontario), 364 (KY), 458 (OR), and 534 (WI) each having 2010 in service dates.
• 2,946 Central Office Codes (COCs) were assigned in 2008, and 10,590 COC changes were made to code assignment information, such as the Operating Company Number (OCN) or switch.
• 93 new Feature Group D Carrier Identification Codes (FG D CICs) were assigned in 2008, and 97 FG D CICs that were not in service or assigned to companies no longer in business were reclaimed/returned.
• 132 of the 328 currently assigned geographic NPAs are projected to exhaust in the next 10 years.

The NANPA Annual Report may be downloaded from http://nanpa.com/reports/reports_annual.html.

Also released in March was the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) latest Numbering Resource Utilization in the United States report. This 51-page report is an overview of the data and ongoing procedures used to determine if the industry is making efficient use of limited numbering resources. A few of the report findings are:

• Utilization by Carrier Type – Over 1.3 billion telephone numbers are spread among reporting carriers, with 652 million assigned to customers, around 619 million available, and about 84 million used for administrative and other purposes. A breakdown of utilization stats by carrier type (6/30/08) is:
• ..... 48.1% = (Of all) telephone numbers were assigned to end users.
• ..... 50.3% (down from 50.7% 6 months prior) = Overall utilization rate of Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) for the numbers they’ve been assigned.
• ..... 65.3% (up from 65.0%) = Overall utilization rate of Cellular/PCS Carriers for the numbers they’ve been assigned.
• ..... 30.4% (up from 26.9%) = Overall utilization rate for Competitive LECs for the numbers they’ve been assigned.
• Smaller Block Pooling Successful in Conserving Numbering Resources – Thousands-block pooling is available in areas with the most demand for additional numbering resources. This practice saved about 355 million phone numbers from being assigned unnecessarily.
• Millions of Telephone Numbers Returned for Reassignment– The FCC’s Numbering Resource Optimization (NRO) Order requires that carriers return large quantities of telephone numbers they do not need to the NANPA in order to avail them for more immediate use needs. During 2008, the telephone numbers returned included 0.96 million in second quarter, rising to 1.49 million numbers in third quarter.
• Customers Moving Millions of Telephone Numbers to New Carriers – Since 2007, more than 21 million subscribers have taken their wireline numbers with them when switching to another wireline carrier. During the same time period, a little over 1 million subscribers have ported their wireline telephone number to a wireless carrier for use on their wireless device. Wireless customers moved more than 18 million telephone numbers to other wireless carriers as they switch service providers, and only 62,000 wireless subscribers have moved their number to a wireline carrier.
• Most Utilized Area Codes in the United States –New York’s area code 646 (which overlays New York City’s area code 212) is the most utilized, with 77.0% of numbers assigned to customers. Arizona’s area code 480 is next, with 75.3% of numbers assigned to customers.

The full FCC Report may be downloaded from http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-289173A1.pdf.