Replying on Yahoo:local-calling-guide and Yahoo:TENproject,
Gwillim Law <rlaw at nc at rr dot com wrote:

> My information about those telephone book code numbers pertains
> mostly to my telephone-book-collecting days in the 1960s.  I've
> got a webpage (http://www.oldtelephonebooks.com/pblistne.html)
> that lists all of those codes that I could find for the
> northeastern U.S.  They are indeed sequential.  The first two
> digits indicate the state, from 01 for Alabama to 83 for Wyoming
> (some states have more than one range; for example, Pennsylvania
> is 62-64).  Then came 84 for the Philippine Islands (!),

Remember that the US got ownership and possesion of the Philippines
following the Spanish-American War, circa 1899/1900. The US gave
the Philippines their independence shortly after WW-II, sometime
in the mid/late 1940s. From the mid-1950s thru circa 1967, the
dominant local/toll telephone company there, PLDT, the Philippine
Long Distance Telephone Company, which was rebuilt following WW-II
by a major influx of US dollars, was controlled/owned by General
Telephone. GT&E's Automatic Electric installed a large amount of
"AE SXS" equipment in Manilla and other parts of the Philippines
served by PLDT.

Circa 1967, Fernando and Imelda Marcos and their friends and agents,
mostly took control of PLDT away from GT&E.

I have seen a 1967 Manilla telephone directory, which the main branch
of the New Orleans Public Library had even as late as the mid-1990s,
and the "fonts" and "sketch-art" pictures in the Yellow Pages, etc.
is all VERY MUCH "US/Canada looking".

I don't remember seeing the 1950s/60s General Telephone System logo
anywhere displayed on the cover or inside the directory, but maybe
that 1967 -- or was it 1968? -- directory was published AFTER GT&E
lost ownership and control of PLDT? But if PLDT was no longer part
of GT&E at the time this directory was printed, it would still take
some time for the now "independent from GT&E" PLDT to "de-Americanize"
the "overall look" of their directories.

I doubt that PLDT directories since the 1970s-era would have that
"US/Canada look and feel" about them anymore, and I would DOUBT that
PLDT continues to identify their directories with the (0)84XXX code
ranges.

> 85 for Alberta up to 95 for Quebec, 98 for Puerto Rico, and 99 for
> the Virgin Islands.  I don't have info about Saskatchewan, Yukon,
> and the rest of the Caribbean at hand, might be able to find
> something.

See list below for Canada; I wasn't sure about PR and USVI, but I
would assume that since those are US possesions at the time that the
directory codes would have been introduced, as you mention below
circa 1965, and since the 809 Area Code for PR and USVI was around
at that time, I would have expected them to be included in this
directory numbering/coding scheme.

I don't know if the "non-US yet still NANP-Caribbean", i.e., those
Caribbean/Bermuda/Bahama locations not part of the US, yet still
part of Country Code +1 and at one-time all part of 809, although
the Dominican Republic still maintains 809 as well as now being
overlaid with 829, would have been part of this standardized
directory coding scheme. If you have 1970s-era directories for these
islands, it would be interesting to know if they used these codes.

Continental Telephone did have a working arrangmenet with the UK's
Cable & Wireless, to provide the telephone service in Jamaica,
Grand Bahama Island - i.e., Freeport & Lucaya and vicinity - yet NOT
the rest of the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago, from
the late 1960s through the early/mid 1980s era. The far-left Marxist
governments of Grenada and Trinidad/Tobago seized Contel's interests
in the telcos in those locations rather early though, in the early
1970s, effectively kicking-out Contel.

But I think that Contel slowly withdrew "on their own" from Barbados,
Jamaica, and Grand Bahama Island of the Bahamas.

I wonder if those Contel areas ever had directories identified with
those standardized codes?

The OTHER "British" Caribbean Islands & Bermuda, i.e., the British
West Indies, etc., which have been part of Country Code +1 and were
one-time part of area code 809, have mostly been run by Cable &
Wireless and/or the local islands' government for provision of basic
voice telephone services.

Contel was completely "out" of the Caribbean by the time that GTE
bought out what existed of Contel circa 1991/92.

General Telephone also has owned CODETEL, the incumbent telco in the
Dominican Republic. The traditional telco there has been known as
VeriZon since 2000, since GTE and Bell Atlantic/NYNEX merged to form
VeriZon at that time. However, VZ wants to "exit" the Dominican
Republic, as well as Puerto Rico.

I wonder if GTE-Codetel's Dominican Republic ever used those standard
directroy codes?

I also wonder if parts of Mexico, such as the northwestern Mexican
border towns in Baja California N and in Sonora, bordering California
and Arizona, respectively, ever had directories identified with those
standardized codes? Telefonica Fronteriza was the telco for such places
as Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, Tecate, and border towns in
the Mexican State of Sonora, through 1980 when the Mexican Federal
Government nationalized them and seized the operations, renaming them
Telefonos de Norte (spelling?), aka "Telnor", now a subsidiary of
Telefonos de Mexico, aka "Telmex".

But back in the 1960s/70s, the border towns of Telefonica Fronteriza
were dialable as part of the NANP/DDD Network with Area Code 903,
NOT as part of Mexico's +52 Country Code. And AT&T/Pacific-Telephone
executives owned the stock of Telefonica Fronteriza!

As mentioned, the Mexican Federal Government seized the operations of
Telefonica Fronteriza, and today, Telnor is a subsidiary of Telmex.
Numbering/Dialing for the northwest Mexican border towns migrated to
Country Code +52 during the 1980s, and the use of NANP Area Code 903
was discontinued in 1980, replaced with temporary use as +1-70-6.
This itself was discontinued in 1991, along with the use of +1-90-5
for Mexico City and vicinity. Area Code 903 was re-assigned for use
starting in 1990 for northeastern Texas, and Area Codes 706 and 905
have been reassigned, respectively, to Georgia in 1992 and Ontario
in 1993.

But it would be interesting to note if Tijuana and such had their
directories identified with these standard codes back in the 1970s
era.

I don't know if +1-671 Guam, +1-670 Mariana Islands, +1-684 American
Samoa now have their directories identified by these standard
directory codes though.

> Within each state/province, the numbers follow the alphabetical
> order of the city names.  This may have changed since the 1960s,
> of course.

The telcos have "re-grouped" towns, renamed directory names, done
a great deal of consolidation in some places with their directories
and coverage areas thus eliminating smaller single-town directories
and the like, as well as splitting up White and Yellow Pages,
introducing "Business-to-Business" specialty type directories,
"mini" Yellow Pages intended to be stored in the "pockets" of the
inside of a car door, and then there are those private/neighberhood
as well as competitive directories being published, which also use
these standardized codes now.

> I think they were introduced about 1965.  I can check on that, too.

That year does "sound about right"! Next time I'm at the Louisiana
State Library in Baton Rouge to do further research in their historic
collection of Louisiana telephone directories, I'll try to see when
Southern Bell first introduced the code-number on the spine of their
directories. I would suspect that the independent telco directories
might not have first started printing this code until much later,
especially small rural independent telcos!

> I have the National Yellow Pages Service Rate and Data Book for May
> 1969.  It has 162 pages of information of interest to Yellow Page
> advertisers, including the codes, which it calls "Directory Codes".
> I've been thinking about scanning it in and putting the basic
> information on my website, but that will take a good deal of time,
> which is a commodity I'm short on right now.

No rush...

> If it would help to list the exact number ranges for each state or
> province, I can do that in another post.
>
> Gwillim Law

By using various sources I found on the Internet, such as the Verizon
Directory Orders website, Qwest/DEX' directory ordering and price list,
the list that Hugh Hamilton referenced, BellSouth's directories page,
etc., and what you mention about the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and
the USVI, I have put togather the following list. Note that I have
referenced the previously existing five-digit codes as SIX-digit codes
with a LEADING ZERO tacked on. I am noticing more directories printing
SIX-digit codes on their spine. And there is the 10XXXX range of
directory codes, six-digits beginning with '1'. Many "private" and
"neighberhood" as well as competitive directories are being identified
as six-digit 10XXXX codes, but even Bell and incumbnet independent
telco directories are also using 10XXXX codes. I assume that these
might be "new" directories that the incumbent telcos are starting up,
such as those specialty "business-to-business" directories, the "mini"
Yellow Pages directories, Spanish language directories, bi-lingual
editions of directories, etc.

There doesn't seem to be any "rhyme or reason" to the use of the
six-digit 10XXXX codes as to geographic location or alphabetical order.
It seems that the codes were assigned sequentially, numerically,
first-come-first-served.

I would assume that if Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa,
or the non-US-yet-still-NANP-Caribbean would need to be assigned
standard directory codes, then the assignment body, whoever that might
be, NECA? Bellcore/Telcordia? someone else?, would simply assign the
next 10XXXX code.

000xxx (unassigned ??)
001xxx Alabama
002xxx Alaska
003xxx Arizona
004xxx Arkansas
005xxx California
006xxx California (continuing)
007xxx California (continuing)
008xxx Colorado
009xxx Connecticut
010xxx Delaware
011xxx DC
012xxx Florida
013xxx Georgia
014xxx Georgia (continuing)
015xxx Georgia (continuing)
016xxx Hawaii
017xxx Idaho
018xxx Illinois
019xxx Illinois (continuing)
020xxx Illinois (continuing)
021xxx Illinois (continuing)
022xxx Indiana
023xxx Indiana (continuing)
024xxx Indiana (continuing)
025xxx Iowa
026xxx Iowa (continuing)
027xxx Kansas
028xxx Kansas (continuing)
029xxx Kentucky
030xxx Louisiana
031xxx Maine
032xxx Maryland
033xxx Massachusetts
034xxx Michigan
035xxx Michigan (continuing)
036xxx Michigan (continuing)
037xxx Michigan (continuing)
038xxx Minnesota
039xxx Mississippi
040xxx Missouri
041xxx Missouri (continuing)
042xxx Montana
043xxx Montana (continuing)
044xxx Nebraska
045xxx Mevada
046xxx New Hampshire
047xxx New Jersey
048xxx New Mexico
049xxx New York
050xxx New York (continuing)
051xxx New York (continuing)
052xxx New York (continuing)
053xxx North Carolina
054xxx North Carolina (continuing)
055xxx North Dakota
056xxx Ohio
057xxx Ohio (continuing)
058xxx Ohio (continuing)
059xxx Oklahoma
060xxx Oklahoma (continuing)
061xxx Oregon
062xxx Pennsylvania
063xxx Pennsylvania (continuing)
064xxx Pennsylvania (continuing)
065xxx Rhode Island
066xxx South Carolina
067xxx South Dakota
068xxx Tennessee
069xxx Texas
070xxx Texas (continuing)
071xxx Texas (continuing)
072xxx Texas (continuing)
073xxx Texas (continuing)
074xxx Utah
075xxx Vermont
076xxx Virginia
077xxx Washington
078xxx West Virginia
079xxx Wisconsin
080xxx Wisconsin (continuing)
081xxx Wisconsin (continuing)
082xxx Wisconsin (continuing)
083xxx Wyoming
084xxx Philippines -- is this still being used?
085xxx Alberta
086xxx British Columbia; also Northwest Territories
087xxx Manitoba
088xxx New Brunswick
089xxx Newfoundland/Labrador
090xxx Northwest Territories; also Yukon
091xxx Nova Scotia
092xxx Ontario
093xxx Ontario (continuing)
094xxx Prince Edward Island
095xxx Quebec
096xxx Saskatchewan
097xxx future Yukon ??
098xxx Puerto Rico
099xxx U.S. Virgin Islands
10Xxxx additional directories throughout US/Canada

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA, pre-Katrina

Geoff Capp <GCAPP at nwtel dot ca> replied to the Telnum list:

> markjcuccia at yahoo dot com wrote:

** SNIP **

>> 084xxx Philippines -- is this still in use ??
>> 085xxx Alberta
>> 086xxx British Columbia; also Northwest Territories
>> 087xxx Manitoba
>> 088xxx New Brunswick
>> 089xxx Newfoundland/Labrador
>> 090xxx Northwest Territories; also Yukon
>> 091xxx Nova Scotia
>> 092xxx Ontario
>> 093xxx Ontario (continuing)
>> 094xxx Prince Edward Island
>> 095xxx Quebec
>> 096xxx Saskatchewan
>> 097xxx future Yukon ??
>> 098xxx Puerto Rico
>> 099xxx U.S. Virgin Islands
>> 10Xxxx additional directories throughout US/Canada

> The three northern directories I have are:
>
> Yukon:  "YPA 086990" plus 35201 in larger numbers. NWT and Nunavut
> both have "YPA 086991".  Their "white" numbers are 35101 for NWT,
> 35301 for Nunavut.
>
> The YPA numbers showed up for the first time with the spring 2006
> issues.
>
> When the NWT was a unified book, March 1992 up to and including the
> March 1998 issue, it was 35101.

YPA -- I did some research, and this stands for
"Yellow Pages Association", http://www.ypassociation.org/

I did some "google" searches and came up with them as the "official"
possibly "neutral", industry association for the Yellow Pages
Advertising Industry, and telephone directory compilation/publishing
in general.

Gwillim Law <rlaw at nc dot rr dot com> mentions the following in his
earlier posting:

> I have the National Yellow Pages Service Rate and Data Book for May
> 1969.  It has 162 pages of information of interest to Yellow Page
> advertisers, including the codes, which it calls "Directory Codes".

Apparantly the "National Yellow Pages Service" has changed its name to
the "Yellow Pages Association".

I don't know if Nat'l Yellow Pages Srvc or YPA was ever once "part" of
the AT&T Bell System, being split off at some point before, or "at",
the 1984 divestiture/break-up.

Several areas managed by AT&T have become spun-off, mostly with 1984,
not just the BOCs, nor Lucent/Bell Labs in the mid-1990s.

There was Bellcore, now known as Telcordia. One of the more important
areas of Bellcore/Telcordia that we are interested in is TRA, Traffic
Routing Administration, and to some degree Common Language Standards.
NANPA was originally put under Bellcore, but became separated from
Bellcore and put under Lockheed-Martin with 1998, and then put under
Warburg-Pincus' "Neustar" with 2000.

There's also NECA, the National Exchange Carriers' Assocaition, which
was to some degree "carved" out of AT&T or the Bell System, circa
1983/84.

ATIS, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, prior to
1993 known as ECSA, the Exchange Carriers' Standards Assocation, was
more-or-less "created out of" AT&T.

So, I wonder if the Yellow Pages Association was once actually
something under AT&T.

And YPA, the Yellow Pages Assocaition, is the current administrator
of these five or six digit standardized directory code identifiers.

The "Rate and Data Book" that Gwillim refers to is still a product of
the YPA. There are also official YPA lists of directory codes and
telephone directory prices. However, according to their website, all
of these guides, lists, etc. are NOT free, but DO COST! :(

And Geoff Capp mentioned that the six-digit YPA code numbers, with
leading zeros in front of the five-digits, only began to be displayed
on the NWTel directories this year. In Gwillim's post, he mentions
that the 1969 directory list has these same codes mostly continued to
be used today for Canada, although in 1969, they didn't have the
leading zero and were only five-digits.

But there are those ADDITIONAL five-digit codes that Geoff Capp
refers to:

35101 Northwest Territories
35201 Yukon
35301 Nunavut

And Geoff continued:

> When the NWT was a unified book, March 1992 up to and including the
> March 1998 issue, it was 35101.
>
> CNT issued a Yukon-Northern BC book through the 1960s up to the
> present day.  They issued a western NWT book through the same period
> up to 1991, once CNT had taken over all independent telephone
> companies in the north.  Meanwhile, Bell Canada issued a phone book,
> tri-lingual - Inuktitut, French and English!) covering the eastern
> NWT and northern Quebec, north of the independent companies of the
> James Bay region.
>
> In 1992, the NWT communities of the Bell book migrated to the
> Northwestel book for the Northwest Territories, where they remained
> for a total of seven issues.  I don't know what happened to northern
> Quebec, but I assume they continued to be in their own book.
>
> The March 1999 replacements for the NWT book were two separate books.
> The NWT book and Nunavut book share the same Yellow Page section, YPA
> 086991, but their white pages are quite different.
>
> The NWT white pages are NWT communities only, then blue pages for the
> NWT, then reverse directory for NWT, then Nunavut communities with
> no blue pages or reverse directory.
>
> The Nunavut white pages English-language section are Nunavut
> communities only, then blue pages for Nunavut, then reverse directory
> for Nunavut, then the NWT communities with no blue pages or reverse
> directory.  The Nunavut English section is preceded by the Nunavut
> Inuktitut-language section in the same sequence as the English
> section.

Geoff has referred to these "long-known" CANADIAN-ONLY five-digit
codes, separate from the YPA six-digit codes with leading zeros, which
in the US were once, and still sometimes displayed as, just five-digit
code numbers.

These Canadian-only five-digit codes do NOT correspond or "interfile"
with the US five, now-six-digits-with-leading-zeros YPA-assigned codes.
I would assume that the Canadian-only codes might even "duplicate"
some US/YPA assigned codes when viewed only as five-digits without
the leading zero.

Gwillim mentions the 1969 National Yellow Pages Service directories
list, which at the time was only using five-digit codes, and has
Canadian directories referenced with "high" numbers that are part of
the unified US/Canada numbering/coding scheme, 85xxx thru 96xxx.

I can remember back in the 1970s or 80s era, researching out-of-town
telephone directories at the library, and noticing these at-the-time
five-digit YPA code numbers for US locations. I also remember seeing
a "PROPRIETARY! -- NOT to be used outside of the Bell System without
being granted previous special permission" warnings, telephone
directory price-listings, with South Central Bell's name displayed on
the folder. Many libraries somehow were able to get Telco to send them
this directory availability/ordering/price-list, even though it had
the "typical" Bell System "proprietary" warning messages!

In those telco-prepared directory lists, I remember seeing the
at-the-time five-digit YPA directory codes associated with the
directory names. It was just too much at the time to photocopy.

I don't remember what they did for Canada's directories, nor what
they used to identify other non-US directories, in those telco-prepared
directory availability/price lists.

But I do remember seeing the Candadian directories at the library,
and since Canada is the "mirror image" of the US especially with
telephone services -- afterall, Canada and the US are partners in the
North American Numbering Plan, Country Code +1, and its area codes.
I would have thought that Canada would have been a "part" of the US
YPA numbering/coding format, which indeed it has been since the 1960s
era, as Gwillam points out, with the at-the-time five-digit numbers,
85xxx thru 96xxx. But I did happen to notice the Canadian directories
back in the 1980s displayed their OWN unique five-digit format, which
could have more than likely "duplicated" US-based at-the-time-five
digit YPA directory codes. I had forgotten about that until I read
Geoff's post about current and previous Yukon, Northwest Territories,
and Nunavut directories of northern Canada.

As for the "master" directory code format of the YPA, Yellow Pages
Association, as well as some of the history of the organization, such
as if it was at one time years ago an actual part of the AT&T Bell
System, I do plan to contact someone at YPA and inquire!

I might actually buy the master directory code and price list, which
according to what is mentioned at the YPA's website, includes all kinds
of other associated info, such as area codes included in whole or part
in the individual directories, etc.

But I do want to inquire about various miscellaneous things about
the YPA and directory codes -- such as, if 084xxx is still assigned to
the Philippines, or if it is "blank" and never "reassigned", of the
000xxx range has ever been intended for anytihing. I also wonder of
097xxx is really something "reserved for future Yukon". I now tend to
doubt it. I'm wondering if maybe "other" Caribbean islands and maybe
at one time Mexico, was ever part of the 097xxx range, especially
maybe VeriZon/GTE/Codetel's Dominican Republic in the Caribbean!
And also now that Guam 671, Northern Mariana Islands 670, and American
Samoa 684 are part of the NANP/DDD Country Code +1 network, have their
directories been integrated into the five-now-six-digit YPA format.
Also, what about the directories of other "pseudo-NANP" Pacific Islands
that used to be US/UN administered, the one-time UN Trust Territories,
+680 Palau, +691 Micronesia, +692 Marshall Islands, as well...

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA, pre-Katrina

Gwillim Law <rlaw at nc dot rr dot com> replied to Yahoo:TENproject:

> markjcuccia at yahoo dot com wrote:

>> The US gave the Philippines their independence shortly after WW-II,
>> sometime in the mid/late 1940s.

> July 4, 1946.

Yes, and also note that it was the 4th of July as well!

I also seem to remember that the "official" date for new states to
enter the "Union", when the new flag with the added star was raised
on official US Government/Military flagpoles, is supposed to be on
the 4th of July, although I don't think that this custom was
necessarily held to in the earliest days of the late 1700s and possibly
earliest years of the 1800s. But it did become standard practice later
on during the 19th Century.

>> I have seen a 1967 Manilla telephone directory, which the main
>> branch of the New Orleans Public Library had even as late as the
>> mid-1990s, and the "fonts" and "sketch-art" pictures in the Yellow
>> Pages, etc. is all VERY MUCH "US/Canada looking".
>>
>> I don't remember seeing the 1950s/60s General Telephone System logo
>> anywhere displayed on the cover or inside the directory, but maybe
>> that 1967 -- or was it 1968? -- directory was published AFTER GT&E
>> lost ownership and control of PLDT?

> I have somewhat shoddy pictures of three Manila phone books from the
> 1960s at http://www.oldtelephonebooks.com/phph.html
> None of them has a GTE logo.

I've seen those pics at your website before -- it's a shame that the
1960 dated directory is in as bad of shape as it is...

Note that in the 1950s/60s, the logo used for the telephone operating
division of GT&E was the "General Telephone System" logo, an inverted
trapezoid with rounded corners and curved sides, sort of a
"carriacature" of an older style rounded corners-and-sides TV screen!

The word GENERAL was printed in big block letters on the top row
inside the trapezoid, then the middle row would be an "oversized
F1-looking" handset similar to those used on WECo/NECo model 302
phones or on some AE "Monophones", and then the third, bottom row,
would be the word SYSTEM printed in big block letters....

i.e., "GENERAL -- TELEPHONE (represented by the handset) -- SYSTEM"

The "perfectly proportioned" blue rectangle but with rounded corners,
with the letters 'GTE' didn't come about until circa 1970, and was
retained for the next three decades by GTE, until Bell Atlantic/NYNEX
took over GTE/Contel, and renamed the whole operation "VeriZon".
Although VZ continued GTE's practice of the 1990s, of selling off
several legacy GTE and legacy Contel operating areas, mostly to Alltel,
CenturyTel, Citizens' Tel, and others.

Regarding the National Yellow Pages Association five, now six, digit
"directory codes":

>>> I think they were introduced about 1965.  I can check on that, too.

> I've found the codes printed on U.S. telephone books starting from
> 1966, and 1965 telephone books without the codes.  That's just a
> spot-check.

The 1965/66 time-period for introduction of those "directory codes",
sounds about right!

>> 097xxx future Yukon ??

> It turns out that my 1972 Freeport, Bahamas telephone book has a
> 97xxx number.

Well, this confirms what I later pondered and posted regarding the
097xxx range...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I also now wonder if 097xxx is really something "reserved for future
Yukon". I now tend to doubt it. I'm wondering if maybe "other"
Caribbean islands and maybe at one time Mexico, was ever part of the
097xxx range, especially maybe VeriZon/GTE/Codetel's Dominican Republic
in the Caribbean!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

> Another post said that Canada had apparently developed a set of
> five-digit codes independent of the ones we've been talking about.
> Some examples in the 3xxxx range were cited.  Checking my Canadian
> telephone books from the 1960s and 1970s, I find that in some
> provinces there are no five-digit codes printed on the telephone
> books at all.  In others, BC, Nova Scotia, Quebec, the numbers are
> in the 8xxxx and 9xxxx range, consistent with the U.S. numbering.

I remember the uniquely Canadian set of five-digit codes, those ranges
separate from the 085xxx through 096xxx, being used to identify
Canadian telephone directories during the 1980s era, when I would be
researching out-of-town directories at various public and university
and specialty libraries, as well as at the "out-of-town directory
shelf" at the public lobby of a telco business office.

I also think that AT&T or the Yellow Pages industry group made the
set of codes VERY LARGE for assignment. Note that there could be a
theoretical ONE THOUSAND directory code assignments for a state,
province, or Caribbean region! And then there are several states
which "spilled over" into a second code range, even some into a third
range and even into a fourth range of 1000 potential directory codes!
That does seem like "overkill"! But then today, with competitive
and private/neighberhood, and numerous types of new "specialty"
directories being published, there does appear to be a current use of
such a large range of theoretical codes... And also the added range
of 10Xxxx, which doesn't seem to be "broken down" into any special
geographic subset ranges.

I tried calling a lady with Yellow Pages Association this afternoon,
to ask about the history of YPA and such, especially about the
directory codes -- to ask about 000xxx, the once Philippine use of
084xxx, and any further details about the 097xxx range for the non-US
parts of the NANP-Caribbean, as well as the 10Xxxx range. I'm also
wondering if the more recent US-Pacific additions to the NANP, Guam,
Mariana Islands, American Samoa, have been assigned standard five or
six-digit directory codes, as well as the other US/UN pseudo-NANP
Pacific area, Palau, Micronesia, Marshall. And also if the northwestern
Mexican border communities have ever used these codes as well.

And thanks, Gwillam, for the additional info you've been able to dig
up on these directory codes/etc!

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA, pre-Katrina

The following comes from the YPA's website, in the "about us" section,
http://www.ypassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=About_Us

Note that several board members/etc. are from the directory or YP
marketing divisions or subsidiaries of the major ILECs in the US.

It also states that the YPA was originally founded in 1975 as the NYPSA
so I wonder "who" actually started assigning and maintaining the
at-the-time five-digit directory codes back circa 1965/66 -- could it
have originally been directly under AT&T General Headquarters?

BTW, I also see that the YPA has offices in northern or central NJ,
in the 908 NPA code, which is a part of Jersey where both AT&T, Lucent/
Labs, Bellcore/Telcordia, and NECA are also very dominant with their
main HQs! YPA also has offices in other states as well, but the NJ/908
connection makes me think that YPA was somehow "spun out" of the
AT&T/Bell System many years ago!

----------------------------------------------

About the Yellow Pages Association

Originally founded in 1975 as the National Yellow Pages Service
Association (NYPSA), the Yellow Pages Association (YPA) is the trade
organization of a print and digital media industry valued at more than
$26 billion worldwide ($14 billion in the U.S.). Association members
include Yellow Pages publishers, who produce products that account for
almost 90 percent of the Yellow Pages revenue generated in the U.S.
and Canada. Members also include the industry's international, national
and local sales forces, certified marketing representatives (CMRs) and
associate members, a group of industry stakeholders that include
Yellow Pages advertisers, vendors and suppliers. The Association has
members in 29 countries.

Neg Norton is president of the Association. Katherine J. Harless,
president of Verizon Information Services, is the Board Chair. YPA
board member companies include AT&T Yellow Pages, BellSouth Advertising
& Publishing Corp., R.H. Donnelley, Yellow Pages Group, Ambassador
Publications, the Association of Directory Marketing, DataNational/
Volt Directory Systems, Marquette Group, RR Donnelley and Wahlstrom
Group.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The 311 code for access to non-emergency local government services is
now beginning in East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana.

Note that the 311 code is NOT to be confused with the 211 code which
has been reserved/assigned for use by non-governmental agencies such
as the United Way, which also provides community information and
support services. But the 211 code used mostly by United Way or
similar agencies, thoughout the US and Canada, is NOT exactly the same
as the 311 code used by local GOVERNMENT agencies.

Note also, that FCC/CRTC and NANPA assignment/identification of these
and other codes for such services does NOT automatically mean that the
associated use/function of the code will take effect. It has taken
30+ years for 911 Emergency services to be implemented throughout the
US/Canada and other parts of the NANP -- and I would assume that there
might even be some places which still don't yet have an active 911
service. However, I seem to think that all wireless providers in the
US, and possibly Canada, will accept 911 to route to the state police,
or in Canada to the Provincial Police or RCMP, when 911 is not yet
active on landlines....

The following article comes from the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate
Newspaper, on how East Baton Rouge Parish (county) is starting up 311
service. But note that while 311 will work on (non-PBX) BellSouth
landlines, it might not necessarily work from PBXes which would need
to program 311 and routing into internal translations, wireless
providers, CLECs, and private payphone internal chips, etc. The article
does state that for those wireless providers who do allow access to 311
that it is SUPPOSED to be a free call.

I know that the private Acadiana Ambulance service was "assigned" 311
statewide by BellSouth back in the early or mid-1990s era. When the
FCC/Fed.Governemnt/etc., and the US-side of the NANP telephone industry
worked out the standards for 311, back in the mid/late 1990s, it was
agreed that if any Louisiana-based local government desired to start up
a 311 service, that Acadiana Ambulance would be moved to the 511 code.

However, since that happened, 511 has been flagged by the FCC and NANPA
for locally provided travel/traffic/transit/weather/etc. service, such
as road/weather conditions, etc. It is to be provided by state or local
governments whenever THEY choose to provide the service. I don't know
if any such agencies in Louisiana have started up the intended 511 use,
but I wonder what will then happen to Acadiana Ambulance? Of course,
the UNDERSTANDING by the ILECs such as BellSouth, and the non-telco,
non-government, etc. assignees of at-the-time surplus N11 codes back
in the early/mid 1990s was that these are NOT to be "owned" by the
assignee, and they could be "bumped" to a different unused/unassigned
N11 code, or even "bumped off completely" with six-months notice, if
the telco industry/NANPA/etc. or FCC/CRTC/Regulatory/government/etc.
chose to re-associate the use of the N11 code for a "higher" function
or standardized nationwide or NANP-wide function.

Regarding the 511 code in Canada, the CRTC has finally decided that
it will be reserved/assigned/whatever for the same function as it is
reserved/assigned for in the US -- travel/traffic/road conditions/
weather, to be provided by local/provincial authorities. Again, just
because it is ASSIGNED/RESERVED for such doesn't automatically make it
magically implemented for such, "overnight". When 511 was still not
officially ear-marked in Canada, the suicide-prevention groups also
wanted the CRTC to flag 511 in Canada for their services. But the CRTC
has since decided to make it the same as in the US.

Anyhow, here is the news article from the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate
newspaper, regarding East Baton Rouge Parish's new activation of the
311 service code....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/4302837.html?showAll=y&c=y

New system allows EBR residents to call 3-1-1 to request services
By SCOTT DYER, Advocate staff writer
Baton Rouge Morning Advocate
Wednesday 04 October 2006

Tired of scouring the blue pages in the telephone book to find the
proper city-parish phone number to report a problem or lodge a
complaint?

Under a system created by Mayor-President Kip Holden's administration,
the only number East Baton Rouge residents will have to remember to
contact any city-parish department is 3-1-1.

"From potholes to permits, stop signs to sidewalks, loose dogs to
overgrown lots, the services that you want are available, simply by
dialing 3-1-1," Holden said.

Under the new system, callers won't have to work their way through a
menu of recordings, but will be connected with a real person, known
as a citizen services specialist.

After discussing the caller's concern, the specialist will forward
the call to the correct city-parish department.

The new system automatically creates a service request based on the
call, enabling city-parish officials to monitor their response.

The call center was established earlier this year by the Department
of Public Works to assist in the transition from manual garbage
collection to automated garbage collection.

The 3-1-1 call center was later expanded to all Public Works-related
complaints, and is now ready to field calls on behalf of the entire
city-parish government, Holden said.

City-parish Information Services Director Don Evans said 3-1-1 will
be a free call on cellular phones, but noted that some cellular
providers still need to install software to access the new call
center.

Cellular customers who have trouble accessing the 3-1-1 call center
should dial 225-389-3090 and report their service providers, Evans
said.

Evans said the initial software for the new call center cost $41,000.

"This is a state-of-the-art Nortel system, and we're going to
continue to enhance it as time goes on," Evans said.

Public Works Director Pete Newkirk said eight employees have been
assigned to field calls from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Previously, each city-parish department handled its own calls,
and response was sometimes slow.

Newkirk said the new system will avoid the duplication that sometimes
occurred when callers reported the same problem to several city-parish
offices.

Holden said one of his top priorities when he was sworn in as mayor
was to improve customer service in city government.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Neuster-NANPA has issued the 2006 3rd Quarter Newsletter.

There is a summary of recent NPA Relief Planning Activities,
including an article on 270 Kentucky Jeopardy;
and also a summary of recent ratecenter consolidations.

NPA Relief Planning Activities are taking place for several area
codes in California, several area codes in Illinois, 304 West VA,
and several other individual NPAs in various states, such as
505/575 New Mexico ...

http://www.nanpa.com/pdf/newsletters/NANPA_3Q_06.pdf
is the direct link to the doucment.

You can also choose "Publications" and then "Newsletters"
from the main page.

At the moment of this writing, the "hot-link" from the main page,
to the 3Q 2006 newsletter iss an invalid format URL,
http://www.nationalnanpa.com.bpp.neustar.com/newsletters/index.html
but this will NOT work, at least from outside of Neustar's, NANPA's,
etc. servers.

Hopefully this URL will be fixed soon -- but the direct link I
reference first does work, as well as choosing Publications and
Newsletters from the main page in the drop-down menus.

mjc

Earlier today, I wrote:

> Neuster-NANPA has issued the 2006 3rd Quarter Newsletter.

SNIP

> http://www.nanpa.com/pdf/newsletters/NANPA_3Q_06.pdf
> is the direct link to the doucment.
>
> You can also choose "Publications" and then "Newsletters"
> from the main page.
>
> At the moment of this writing, the "hot-link" from the main page,
> to the 3Q 2006 newsletter is an invalid format URL,
> http://www.nationalnanpa.com.bpp.neustar.com/newsletters/index.html
> but this will NOT work, at least from outside of Neustar's, NANPA's,
> etc. servers.
>
> Hopefully this URL will be fixed soon -- but the direct link I
> reference first does work, as well as choosing Publications and
> Newsletters from the main page in the drop-down menus.

The "hot-link" from the main webpage has now been fixed.

It now points to http://www.nanpa.com/newsletters/index.html
which isn't a direct link to the 3Q 2006 pdf document itself,
but rather the link to the entire list of all NANPA Newsletters
dating back to 1999, including the earlier pre-2002 versions known
as "The State Scene" and "NANPA Numbering News". Starting in 2002,
the newsletters started coming out quarerly, under a single title
known as the NANPA Newsletter.

Anyhow that invalid format URL for the "hot-link" has now been fixed!

mjc

Just the other month, 310 in coastal southern California was
effectively overlaid with the new 424 NPA. This was the FIRST
overlay to finally take effect anywhere in the state of California.

There is now the opening up of NPA Relief Planning, or at least the
"re-activation" of previously "suspended" NPA Relief, for at least
two area codes in southern California --

Back around 2000, the 714 NPA in Orange County was to be overlaid
with 657. That was halted by the Ca.PUC prior to actually taking
effect, and has been "on hold" ever since. Now it looks like 714
will need to re-activate NPA Relief. The telco industry and the
Ca.PUC will be holding public hearings in the near future on what
will be done for 714. It could be the overlay with 657 as originally
planned for back in 1999/2000. Or it could be a split of some kind.

Also, the 760 NPA in eastern CA, which used to be the largest portion
of the 714 and then the 619 NPAs back in the "old days", was supposed
to be split back in 2000 or 2001, with 442 splitting off for the
Pacific Coastal portion of 760, south of the Orange County 714 & 949
NPAs, and north of San Diego Metro's 619 and 858 NPAs. However, this
split was halted before it could actually take effect.

More recently, the telephone industry and the Ca.PUC have decided to
open up the issue again. It's always possible that the originally
intended 714/442 split could take effect, or there could be a reversal
of who keeps 714 and who gets 442; there are also other split options
"on the table"; and of course, there is always the overlay possible.

Anyhow, here is a summary of the various ratecenters throughout all of
southern California, sorted by which NPA they are now in, or which NPA
they "might" split off to, along with the incumbent LEC identified,
mostly Bell, GTE, or GTE-once-Contel, and also the LATA assocaition.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

SOUTHERN and southeastern, east-central, south-central CALIFORNIA:

NPAs: 213, 323, 310/424, 562, 818 (747), 626
  i.e., the 213 NPA as it existed before 1984

NPAs: 714/(657), 949, 909/(752), 951, 619 (935), 858, 760 (442)
  i.e., the 714 NPA as it existed before 1982/83

NPAs: 805, 661
  i.e., the 805 NPA as it existed before 1999

------------------------------------------------------------------

"Bell" refers to "at&t/SBC/Pac*Bell",
   or in one case "at&t/SBC/Pacific*Telesis/NV*Bell"

"GT&E"   refers to "VeriZon/GTE", OCN:2319

"Contel" refers to VZ/GTE/Contel, OCN:4420

There are some other independent LECs as well

ALSO, the letters 'DA' refer to "District Area"

------------------------------------------------------------------

ALL of LATA #730 Los Angeles CA Metro
ALL of LATA #732 San Diego CA Metro
ALL of LATA #734 Bakersfeld CA Metro
ALL of LATA #740 San Luis Obispo CA Metro
ALL of LATA #973 VZ/GTE Palm Springs CA Metro
  are completely contained in these NPAs...

There are some other adjacent states (NV, AZ) LATAs as well
  which serve ratecenters in NPA 760:
   Las Vegas/Pahrump NV Metro LATA #721
   Phoenix AZ Metro LATA #666

------------------------------------------------------------------

   NPA 213, 03 "Bell" ratecenters:
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 01 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 07 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 10 DA

------------------------------------------------------------------

   NPA 323, 12 "Bell" ratecenters (split from 213 in 1998):
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 02 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 03 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 04 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 05 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 06 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 08 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 09 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 11 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 12 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 13 DA
Los Angeles: Los Angeles 14 DA
Montebello

------------------------------------------------------------------

NPAs 310/424 in overlay, 16 ratecenters:
  (split from 213 in 1992/93; 310 overlaid with 424 in 2006):

   11 "Bell" ratecenters:
Avalon              (*)
Beverly Hills, includes the WLANCA01 switch/Century City locality
Compton: Compton DA (*) EXCLUDES Paramount CA locality/wirecenter
Compton: Gardena DA (*)
Culver City
El Segundo          (*)
Hawthorne           (*)
Inglewood
Lomita              (*)
San Pedro           (*)
Torrance            (*)

   05 "GT&E" ratecenters:
Malibu
Redondo             (*)
Santa Monica: Mar Vista DA
Santa Monica: Santa Monica DA
West Los Angeles, excludes WLANCA01 switch/Century City locality

   (*) these nine ratecenters were planned to split off to 424,
     after the Ca.PUC cancelled the originally intended overlay
     plan, but in 2005 the Ca.PUC reinstated the originally
     intended overlay plan afterall, which was put into effect
     in Summer 2006.

------------------------------------------------------------------

   NPA 562, 08 "GT&E" ratecenters (split from 310 in 1997):
Alamitos
Downey
La Habra
Lakewood
Long Beach
Norwalk
Pico Rivera
Whittier

(plus the "Bell" 310/424 Compton:Compton DA ratecenter's
  "Paramount" locality/wirecenter within the 562 NPA)

------------------------------------------------------------------

NPA 818, 16 ratecenters (split from 213 in 1984):

   11 "Bell" ratecenters:
Agoura      (*)
Burbank: Burbank DA
Burbank: Sun Valley DA
Canoga Park (*)
Glendale
La Crescenta
North Hollywood
Northridge
Pasadena: La Cañada DA
Reseda      (*)
Van Nuys    (*)
   (*) these four "Bell" ratecenters could possibly
    split off to the new 747 NPA at some future date

   05 "GT&E" ratecenters:
San Fernando: Granada Hills DA
San Fernando: Pacoima DA
San Fernando: San Fernando DA
San Fernando: Sepulveda DA
Sunland-Tujunga

------------------------------------------------------------------

NPA 626, 10 ratecenters (split from 818 in 1997):

   04 "Bell" ratecenters:
Alhambra
Arcadia
El Monte
Pasadena: Pasadena DA

   06 "GT&E" ratecenters:
Azusa-Glendora
Covina-Baldwin Park
La Puente
Monrovia
San Gabriel Canyon
Sierra Madre

------------------------------------------------------------------

NPA 714, 13 ratecenters:

(714 was to be overlaid with 657 in 2000, but the
  Ca-PUC halted this overlay before effective)

   11 "Bell" ratecenters:
Anaheim
Brea
Buena Park
Cypress
Fullerton
Garden Grove
Orange
Placentia
Santa Ana
Silverado
Yorba Linda

   02 "GT&E" ratecenters:
Huntington Beach
Westminster

------------------------------------------------------------------

NPA 949, 07 ratecenters (split from 714 in 1998):

   06 "Bell" ratecenters:
Newport Beach
Irvine
Saddleback Valley
Trabuco
Rancho Viejo
Capistrano Valley

   01 "GT&E" ratecenter:
Laguna Beach

------------------------------------------------------------------

NPA 909, 21 ratecenters (split from 714 in 1992/93):

(909 was to be overlaid with 752 in 2001, AFTER the
  originally intended 2000 date for the 909/951 split,
  but the Ca-PUC halted both the split and overlay
  before becoming effective)

   14 "GT&E" ratecenters:
Claremont-San Dimas
Pomona
Diamond Bar
Chino
Ontario
Upland
Etiwanda
Marshall
Crestline
Arrowhead
San Bernardino
Redlands
Mentone
Calimesa

   04 "Bell" ratecenters:
Fontana
Rialto
Highland
Colton

   03 "Contel" ratecenters:
Running Springs
Big Bear Lake
Big Bear City

------------------------------------------------------------------

NPA 951, 20 ratecenters (split from 909 in 2004):

   06 "Bell" ratecenters:
Corona
Mira Loma
Riverside
Arlington
Temescal Canyon
Woodcrest

   14 "GT&E" ratecenters:
Moreno
Lakeview Nuevo
Perris
Elsinore
Sun City
Murrieta
Temecula
Hemet: Sage DA
Hemet: Anza DA
Hemet: Hemet DA
Hemet: Homeland DA
Hemet: San Jacinto DA
Banning
Idyllwild

------------------------------------------------------------------

619/858/935, completely "Bell",
  completely within LATA #732 San Diego CA Metro

  NPA 619, 01 ratecenter (split from 714 in 1982/83):
San Diego: San Diego DA

  NPA 858, 08 ratecenters (split from 619 in 1999):
San Diego: Linda Vista DA
San Diego: Mira Mesa DA
Del Mar
La Jolla
Poway
Rancho Bernardo
Rancho Penasquitos
Rancho Santa Fe

  NPA 935, 10 ratecenters
  (was to split from 619 in 2000, but this split was
   subsequently halted by the Ca.PUC; presently these
   ratecenters are still within NPA 619):
Campo
Chula Vista
Coronado
Dulzura
El Cajon
Harbison-Alpine
Jacumba
La Mesa
National City
Pine Valley

------------------------------------------------------------------

NPA 760, 84 ratecenters (split from 619 in 1997):
  all of these in the Los Angeles CA Metro LATA #730, EXCEPT where noted

   41 "Contel" ratecenters:
Bridgeport
Lee Vining
June Lake
Mammoth Lakes
Crowley Lake
Benton
Bishop
Pine Creek
Big Pine
Independence
Lone Pine
Olancha
Havasu Lake
Earp: Earp DA
Earp: Earp Lost Lake DA
Parker Dam
Blythe
Palo Verdo
Newberry
Barstow: Barstow DA
Barstow: Yermo DA
Fort Irwin
Trona
Kernville
Lake Isabella
Weldon
Inyokern
Ridgecrest
Randsburg
California City
Boron
Lenwood
Victorville: Victorville DA
Victorville: Adelanto DA
Victorville: Apple Valley DA
Victorville: Hesperia DA
El Mirage
Wrightwood: Wrightwood DA
Wrightwood: Phelan DA
Summit Valley
Lucerne Valley

   04 "Bell" ratecenters:
Death Valley
Shoshone
Baker
Mountain Pass

   01 "NEVADA*Bell" ratecenter, Las Vegas/Pahurmp NV Metro LATA #721:
Sandy Valley

   02 other independent ratecenters, Los Angeles CA Metro LATA #730:
Cima               (OCN 2332: Ponderosa Telco)
Needles            (OCN 3402: Frontier/Citizens' Golden State Telco)

   02 other independent ratecenters, Phoenix AZ Metro LATA #666
California Village (OCN 2200 Ft.Mojave Telco)
Winterhaven        (OCN 2323 TDS' Winterhaven Telco)

  (LATA #730 Los Angeles CA Metro also "spills over" into the western
   edge of Arizona, covering several ratecenters in AZ in NPA 928)

   13 "GT&E" ratecenters, Palm Springs CA Metro LATA #973:
Homestead Valley
Twentynine Palms
Joshua Tree
Yucca Valley
Morongo Valley
Desert Hot Springs
Palm Springs
Palm Desert
Pinyon
Indio
Eagle Mountain
Desert Center
Salton

   21 "Bell" ratecenters, San Diego CA Metro LATA #732
Calipatria
Brawley
Imperial
El Centro
Ocotillo
Holtville
Calexico
Fallbrook               (*)
Oceanside: Pendelton DA (*)
Oceanside: Oceanside DA (*)
Oceanside: Carlsbad DA  (*)
Vista                   (*)
San Marcos              (*)
Encinitas               (*)
Escondido               (*)
Valley Center           (*)
Pauma Valley            (*)
Warner Springs          (*)
Ramona                  (*)
Julian                  (*)
Borrego                 (*)
   (*) these fourteen "Bell" ratecenters were to split off to
    NPA 442 during 2000/01, but the split was subsequently
    halted by the Ca.PUC. All of these ratecenters ae within
    San Diego County, rather than Imperial County.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

NPA 805, 40 ratecenters:

LATA #720 Los Angeles CA Metro:

   09 "Bell" ratecenters:
Fillmore
Moorpark
Oakview
Ojai
Piru
Saticoy
Simi Valley
Ventura Central
Ventura East

   09 "GT&E" ratecenters:
Camarillo
Conejo
El Rio
Newbury Park
Oxnard
Point Mugu
Santa Paula
Somis
Thousand Oaks

LATA #740 San Luis Obispo CA Metro:

   12 "Bell" ratecenters:
Arroyo Grande
Atascadero
Bradley
Cambria
Carrisa Plains
Cayucos
Morro Bay
Nipomo
Paso Robles
Pismo Beach
San Luis Obispo
Santa Margarita

   08 "GT&E" ratecenters:
Carpinteria
Gaviota
Guadalupe
Lompoc
Los Alamos
Santa Barbara
Santa Maria
Santa Ynez

   02 "Contel" ratecenters:
Parkfield
San Miguel

-----------------------------------------------------------------

NPA 661, 32 ratecenters (split from 805 in 1999):

LATA #720 Los Angeles CA Metro:

   06 "Bell" ratecenters:
Big Butte
Palmdale: Agua Dulce DA
Palmdale: Leona Valley DA
Palmdale: Palmdale DA
Santa Clarita: Newhall-Castaic DA
Santa Clarita: Saugus Canyon Country DA

   03 "GT&E" ratecenters:
Hi Vista
Lake Hughes
Lancaster

LATA #734 Bakersfield CA Metro:

   14 "Bell" ratecenters:
Arvin
Bakersfield: Bakersfield Main DA
Bakersfield: Bakersfield North DA
Bakersfield: Bakersfield South DA
Delano
Earlimart
Edwards
Lebec
Mojave
Rosamond
Shafter
Tehachapi
Walker Basin
Wasco

   09 "Contel" ratecenters:
Berrenda Mesa
Buttonwillow
California Hot Springs
Cuyama
Glennville
Lost Hills
McFarland
McKittrick
Taft

-----------------------------------------------------------------

213:       03 ratecenters
323:       12 ratecenters
310/424:   16 ratecenters
562:       08 ratecenters (not counting Compton:Compton:Paramount)
818:       16 ratecenters (includes the 04 which are to split off
                      to 747 at some future date)
626:       10 ratecenters
           ---------------
TOTAL:     65 ratecenters (OLD 213, as it existed before 1984)


714/(657): 13 ratecenters
949:       07 ratecenters
909/(752): 21 ratecenters
951:       20 ratecenters
619:       01 ratecenter
858:       08 ratecenters
935:       10 ratecenters (still part of 619)
760:       84 ratecenters (includes the 14 which would have split
                     off to 442 in 2000/01, but halted by Ca.PUC)
           ---------------
TOTAL:    164 ratecenters (OLD 714, as it existed before 1982/83)


805:       40 ratecenters
661:       32 ratecenters
           ---------------
TOTAL:     72 ratecenters (OLD 805, as it existed before 1999)

==================================================================

BellSouth Preparing 811 for Pipeline Emergencies/ Call Before You Dig
"One Call"

Yesterday, I posted about how East Baton Rouge Parish (County) in
Louisiana is starting up their own 311 Non-Emergency Local Government
Access Service Code ....

And today, while searching BellSouth's tariffs, I find some vague
references to the fact that BellSouth is about to open up the 811
code system-wide for a "Call Before You Dig One-Call" Center.

Several years ago, I think even prior to 11-Sept-2001, the US Federal
Government desired that the US telecom industry set aside a special
three-digit code for reporting "pipeline emergencies". They wanted a
three-digit "short" code that was easy to remember, and one which
wasn't going to require any preceding star * entries, nor trailing
# pound entries, nor any post-dial-delays requiring a "time-out".

Some of the "geniuses" at the Federal Government stated that '344'
would be a "nice" code, since there is presently no 344 area code,
and 344 spells out 'DIG' on the lettered telephone dial.

Of course, the numbering/dialing/etc. experts within the telephone
industry stated that there are alreay dozens of 344 central office
codes in use already in many area codes, where seven-digit local
dialing is in use, as well as assigned line-numbers on such a 344
c.o.code.

For the 344 to be used for "DIG" reporting or emergencies in such
area codes with active 344 c.o.codes and seven-digit local dialing
to those customers, and to NOT require any star/pound/time-out/etc.
additional requirements, all of those NPA+344-xxxx customers would
have to be forced to migrate off of the 344 c.o.code.

Instead, the numbering/dialing/switching/routing etc. experts, i.e.,
those telco members who attend the ATIS "INC" and "NIIF/NRRIC"
meetings and such, ATIS and its INC, NIIF, NRRIC, etc. are telecom
industry standards forums --

ATIS  = Alliance for Telecom Industry Soluntions
INC   = Industry Numbering Committee
NIIF  = Network Interconnection & Interoperability Forum
NRRIC = Network Routing & Rating Information Committee

were able to convince the Federal Government that the use of '344'
was NOT a good idea as the code for such a function, and that antoher
three-digit code, such as an 'N11' format code, would be better.

So, since 811 was used by a rather small number of telcos for
reaching the business office, since most telcos already had 7/10
digit "POTS" numbers, or 10-digit toll-free 800/888/877/866 numbers
for calling the business office, that the US Federal Government and
the telephone industry should designate 811 as the future "stadndard"
code for reporting pipeline emergencies, or overall "call before you
dig" type of calls to a "one call" center.

Post-11-Sept-2001, the Federal Government accellerated the desire for
the need of such a three-digit "short" code for pipeline emergencies
or "call before you dig" functions.

Eventually, the FCC ordered that 811 be ear-marked for this function,
and that any pre-existing use for the business office or customer
service, whether by incumbent landline telcos, or by wireless
carriers for business office/customer service or repair service,
instead be migrated over to some other 7/10 digit "POTS" number or
a standard toll-free "8YY" ten-digit number. Cell providers could
have their own "Star" codes of course...

I know that there are a handful of telcos in the US which still might
be using 811 for reaching the business office, but the FCC/Congress/
etc. is requiring them to eventually "vacate" 811, so that 811 can
be used for "Call Before You Dig". I don't know what the "deadline"
is though...

But it does look like BellSouth is getting ready to "open up" the 811
code for "Call Before You Dig One-Call" rather soon. I was visiting
their website looking for network standards documents and tariff
filings, and came across something for each of the nine BellSouth
states in the tariff filings section regarding 811:

http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/index3.htm

http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/la/notice/LA2006-093.pdf
http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/ms/notice/MS2006-081.pdf
http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/al/notice/AL2006-088.pdf
http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/fl/notice/FL2006-175.pdf
http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/ga/notice/GA2006-133.pdf
http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/sc/notice/SC2006-106.pdf
http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/nc/notice/NC2006-123.pdf
http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/tn/notice/TN2006-119.pdf
http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/ky/notice/KY2006-070.pdf

The various tariff reference code numbers vary from state to state,
and the "effective date" varies slightly for each state -- i.e.,
different dates within November 2006 ...

It appears that the legacy South Central Bell states have an
effective date of 06-November-2006, while the legacy Southern Bell
states have an effective date one week later on 13-November-2006.

I wasn't able to find much more at BellSouth's websites regarding
811, other than the individual state-specific pdf documents listed
above, though.

In Canada, the CRTC has "ear-marked" 811 for some kind of Health
Care related function, but I don't know if the 811 code has been
activated to route to the health care function yet or not. I do
think that since Canada mostly copies the US, that within another
couple of years, they might reconsider the currently desired use
of 811 for the Health Care triage service, and instead re-allocate
811 for a Call Before You Dig, especially in today's post-9/11
environment. There might still be some telcos in Canada which still
use 811 for telco business office, but they are supposed to be
vacating 811 if they haven't done so already.

A list of the eight N11 special three-digit "short" codes as
"officially" allocated by the FCC and NANPA for the US, and by the
CRTC and the CNA for Canada, can be found at the NANPA and CNA
websites. But NOTE that while these assignments/reservations are
how the industry/regulatory/government desires their uses, it doesn't
necessarily mean that all assignments as such are currently activated
in use as such. There still might be older "national" or local
"legacy" uses at this time in some places.

http://www.nanpa.com/number_resource_info/n11_codes.html
http://www.cnac.ca/other_codes/n11/n11_codes.htm

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina

Still, in the Washington D.C. area, 811 reports, through automation, the
office code and line number.
In Washington County MD, it is 211, and in Berkeley County WV, it is 996
I feel sure VeriZon uses many different codes throughout, and are loath
to reveal them to others!

John Novack

Mark J. Cuccia wrote:
> BellSouth Preparing 811 for Pipeline Emergencies/ Call Before You Dig
> "One Call"
>
> Yesterday, I posted about how East Baton Rouge Parish (County) in
> Louisiana is starting up their own 311 Non-Emergency Local Government
> Access Service Code ....
>
> And today, while searching BellSouth's tariffs, I find some vague
> references to the fact that BellSouth is about to open up the 811
> code system-wide for a "Call Before You Dig One-Call" Center.
>
> Several years ago, I think even prior to 11-Sept-2001, the US Federal
> Government desired that the US telecom industry set aside a special
> three-digit code for reporting "pipeline emergencies". They wanted a
> three-digit "short" code that was easy to remember, and one which
> wasn't going to require any preceding star * entries, nor trailing
> # pound entries, nor any post-dial-delays requiring a "time-out".
>
> Some of the "geniuses" at the Federal Government stated that '344'
> would be a "nice" code, since there is presently no 344 area code,
> and 344 spells out 'DIG' on the lettered telephone dial.
>
> Of course, the numbering/dialing/etc. experts within the telephone
> industry stated that there are alreay dozens of 344 central office
> codes in use already in many area codes, where seven-digit local
> dialing is in use, as well as assigned line-numbers on such a 344
> c.o.code.
>
> For the 344 to be used for "DIG" reporting or emergencies in such
> area codes with active 344 c.o.codes and seven-digit local dialing
> to those customers, and to NOT require any star/pound/time-out/etc.
> additional requirements, all of those NPA+344-xxxx customers would
> have to be forced to migrate off of the 344 c.o.code.
>
> Instead, the numbering/dialing/switching/routing etc. experts, i.e.,
> those telco members who attend the ATIS "INC" and "NIIF/NRRIC"
> meetings and such, ATIS and its INC, NIIF, NRRIC, etc. are telecom
> industry standards forums --
>
> ATIS  = Alliance for Telecom Industry Soluntions
> INC   = Industry Numbering Committee
> NIIF  = Network Interconnection & Interoperability Forum
> NRRIC = Network Routing & Rating Information Committee
>
> were able to convince the Federal Government that the use of '344'
> was NOT a good idea as the code for such a function, and that antoher
> three-digit code, such as an 'N11' format code, would be better.
>
> So, since 811 was used by a rather small number of telcos for
> reaching the business office, since most telcos already had 7/10
> digit "POTS" numbers, or 10-digit toll-free 800/888/877/866 numbers
> for calling the business office, that the US Federal Government and
> the telephone industry should designate 811 as the future "stadndard"
> code for reporting pipeline emergencies, or overall "call before you
> dig" type of calls to a "one call" center.
>
> Post-11-Sept-2001, the Federal Government accellerated the desire for
> the need of such a three-digit "short" code for pipeline emergencies
> or "call before you dig" functions.
>
> Eventually, the FCC ordered that 811 be ear-marked for this function,
> and that any pre-existing use for the business office or customer
> service, whether by incumbent landline telcos, or by wireless
> carriers for business office/customer service or repair service,
> instead be migrated over to some other 7/10 digit "POTS" number or
> a standard toll-free "8YY" ten-digit number. Cell providers could
> have their own "Star" codes of course...
>
> I know that there are a handful of telcos in the US which still might
> be using 811 for reaching the business office, but the FCC/Congress/
> etc. is requiring them to eventually "vacate" 811, so that 811 can
> be used for "Call Before You Dig". I don't know what the "deadline"
> is though...
>
> But it does look like BellSouth is getting ready to "open up" the 811
> code for "Call Before You Dig One-Call" rather soon. I was visiting
> their website looking for network standards documents and tariff
> filings, and came across something for each of the nine BellSouth
> states in the tariff filings section regarding 811:
>
> http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/index3.htm
>
> http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/la/notice/LA2006-093.pdf
> http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/ms/notice/MS2006-081.pdf
> http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/al/notice/AL2006-088.pdf
> http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/fl/notice/FL2006-175.pdf
> http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/ga/notice/GA2006-133.pdf
> http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/sc/notice/SC2006-106.pdf
> http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/nc/notice/NC2006-123.pdf
> http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/tn/notice/TN2006-119.pdf
> http://cpr.bst.bellsouth.com/pdf/ky/notice/KY2006-070.pdf
>
> The various tariff reference code numbers vary from state to state,
> and the "effective date" varies slightly for each state -- i.e.,
> different dates within November 2006 ...
>
> It appears that the legacy South Central Bell states have an
> effective date of 06-November-2006, while the legacy Southern Bell
> states have an effective date one week later on 13-November-2006.
>
> I wasn't able to find much more at BellSouth's websites regarding
> 811, other than the individual state-specific pdf documents listed
> above, though.
>
> In Canada, the CRTC has "ear-marked" 811 for some kind of Health
> Care related function, but I don't know if the 811 code has been
> activated to route to the health care function yet or not. I do
> think that since Canada mostly copies the US, that within another
> couple of years, they might reconsider the currently desired use
> of 811 for the Health Care triage service, and instead re-allocate
> 811 for a Call Before You Dig, especially in today's post-9/11
> environment. There might still be some telcos in Canada which still
> use 811 for telco business office, but they are supposed to be
> vacating 811 if they haven't done so already.
>
> A list of the eight N11 special three-digit "short" codes as
> "officially" allocated by the FCC and NANPA for the US, and by the
> CRTC and the CNA for Canada, can be found at the NANPA and CNA
> websites. But NOTE that while these assignments/reservations are
> how the industry/regulatory/government desires their uses, it doesn't
> necessarily mean that all assignments as such are currently activated
> in use as such. There still might be older "national" or local
> "legacy" uses at this time in some places.
>
> http://www.nanpa.com/number_resource_info/n11_codes.html
> http://www.cnac.ca/other_codes/n11/n11_codes.htm
>
> Mark J. Cuccia
> markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
> Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

John Novack <jnovack at stromberg-carlson dot org> replied to
Yahoo:local-calling-guide and Yahoo:centraloffice with:

> Still, in the Washington D.C. area, 811 reports, through
> automation, the  office code and line number. In Washington
> County MD, it is 211, and in Berkeley County WV, it is 996.
> I feel sure VeriZon uses many different codes throughout,
> and are loath to reveal them to others!

I'd forgotten about telcos using 811 and other N11s for "secret"
test functions... anyhow, remember what I wrote earlier:

>> I know that there are a handful of telcos in the US which still
>> might be using 811 for reaching the business office, but the
>> FCC/Congress/etc. is requiring them to eventually "vacate" 811,
>> so that 811 can be used for "Call Before You Dig". I don't know
>> what the "deadline" is though...

and:

>> A list of the eight N11 special three-digit "short" codes as
>> "officially" allocated by the FCC and NANPA for the US, and by the
>> CRTC and the CNA for Canada, can be found at the NANPA and CNA
>> websites. But NOTE that while these assignments/reservations are
>> how the industry/regulatory/government desires their uses, it
>> doesn't necessarily mean that all assignments as such are currently
>> activated in use as such. There still might be older "national" or
>> local "legacy" uses at this time in some places.
>>
>> http://www.nanpa.com/number_resource_info/n11_codes.html
>> http://www.cnac.ca/other_codes/n11/n11_codes.htm

At some point in the near future, VZ/BA will have to "vacate" the
use of 811 for ANAC in Washington DC, so that it can be used to route
to a "Call before you dig One-Call center".

And if the United Way or some other similar agency wants to establish
a 211 Call Center in Washington County MD, then VZ/BA will also have
to "vacate" their current ANAC use of 211 there.

As for Berkeley County WV, VeriZon/Bell Atlantic has been able to have
Neuster-NANPA "flag" the 304-996 theoretical c.o.code as "UA",
UN-assignable, so we probably won't see any possible conflicts with
any "POTS" 304-996-xxxx numbers at this time. However, since West VA's
304 NPA is approaching exhaust within the next few years, it might
happen that NANPA, the telco industry in WV "in general", and state
regulatory in WV might "request" VZ/BA to try to find some other code
or number, even a seven/ten-digit "POTS" number, for ANAC and other
test-functions, so that the 304-996 potential/theoretical c.o.code
could be re-assigned as a "POTS" geographic c.o.code in West Virginia
and thus "hold off" a split or overlay of 304 for some time. The
telephone and regulatory industry usually try to have meetings and
conference calls to resovle these things when planning on a split or
overlay for NPA Relief when the NPA is close to exhaust.....

Many telcos now have standard-looking seven/ten-digit POTS numbers
for ANAC-in, ANAC-out, and other test-functions, which previously used
special three-digit codes of the NNX or NXX format!

Here in Lafayette LA, BellSouth's ANAC-out from my "Vermillion" 1AESS
is a seven-digit number that is "POTS" looking. I don't know what it
is, but I suspect it is something on the 97x or 98x or 99x c.o.code.
But there are ten-digit 8YY toll-free numbers out there which read
back ANI... although it *IS* nice to know what the landline ILEC's
switch-based ANAC-out, and even ANAC-in codes/numbers happen to be.
I *DID* find out the special NNX c.o.code used for ringback/revertive
for Lafayette-Vermillion 1A, LFYTLAVMCG0. Of course, I do have to
continue with my last four digits -- BTW, the 'C' digit is identical
to the actual office code 'C' digit of my seven-digit phone number --
and then FLASH on the second dialtone, before hanging up...

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina

Wasn't 211 the Long Distance Operator prior to DDD?

Charles of Schaumburg

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Charles of Schaumburg n5hsr <n5hsr at sprynet dot com> wrote:

> Wasn't 211 the Long Distance Operator prior to DDD?

In many Panel/#1XB areas, yes, 211 was indeed used to reach the
outward toll/LD operator. There were separate boards for the local
'0' assistance operator, and the toll/LD operator.

Many SXS areas used 110 for the toll operator, with '0' for the local
assistance operator.

I don't know if it was necessarily the introduction of DDD per-se
that caused the elimination of 211 and 110 for the LD operator, but
about the same time, Bell was trying to consolidate the operator
boards, and thus retained the use of '0' for the combined local and
toll assistance operator.

But I do know that New York City was still using 211 for the LD Opr
well into the 1970s. I don't know if it was the same operator board
as the '0' local operator or if it was still a separate board though.

I was told that NYC was using 211 for either coin credit, or message
unit credit on local wrong numbers possibly in the 1980s or 90s
though.

It wasn't until more recently, circa 1999 or 2000 or so, that that
the North American telco and regulatory entities decided that the
United Way or the like should be assigned 211 whenever/where-ever
they desired it.

mjc

I had a chance to speak at length with a lady from the YPA this
Thursday afternoon.

The five-now-six-digit Directory Codes were started up by AT&T,
probably General Department HQ back in the mid-1960s, or maybe
by AT&T Long Lines, for use by their "Directories" standards and
Yellow Pages marketing operations.

AT&T did refer to their Yellow Pages operations, which published
the "Rate & Data Book" regarding YP advertizing and marketing,
as the National Yellow Pages Service.

In 1975, NYPS was "spun out" of AT&T to do the National Rate and
Data Book. I am assuming that AT&T was already beginning to feel
the pressure against it from potential competition as well as from
regulatory/government.

The Yellow Pages Association is a later name for the NYPS, and the
YPA website states that they were founded in 1975 as the NYPS,
although their history goes back a little further!

With the breakup/divestiture of the Bell System/AT&T that took
effect in 1984, the assignments and maintenance of the five-digit
Directory Codes was transferred from AT&T to the NYPS or YPA.
I don't know the exact year that the name was changed form NYPS to
YPA.

The five-digit, now six-digts-with-leading zero's previously
existing directory code geographic ranges are still "mostly" adhered
to, although they could in theory now be used for "any" requesting
directory publisher, for a directory for "anywhere" in the world,
as long as the five/six digit code was NEVER previously used for
ANYTHING else, but it is more likley that the requesting entity
would be assigned the next sequential 10Xxxx six-digit code.
YPA is up to codes in the 105xxx range at present.

I assume that if publisher of a US or Canadian local directory,
regardless of whether the publisher/distributor was an ILEC or
associated with an ILEC, or a private/independent competitive
non-telco publisher, or a publication/distribution of a CLEC,
COULD get a code associated with the traditional range of the
state/province that this "new" directory covers. But unless that
directory publisher/distributor requests a traditional geographic
0XXxxx code for that specific geographic territory, than they
would more than likely be assigned a 105XXX or higher code, the
next sequential one.

I was also told that discontinued directory codes are NOT to be
"re-assigned".

I also inquired about the "unique, separate, but duplicating-those-
already-assigned-within-the-US" five-digit range used in Canada,
and was told that she was indeed aware that Canada internally has
used their own lower five-digit range, actually printing those codes
on the spine of their directories or in price-lists, but she didn't
have any geographic specifics on how those codes might be grouped
into ranges. YET the Canadian provinces and territories WERE ALSO
assigned AT&T/NYPS/YPA standardized 8Xxxx and 9Xxxx five-digit, now
08Xxxx and 09Xxxx six-digit ranges, dating back to the mid-1960s!

Some of the directory price lists I've found on the Internet, from
various ILECs and other distributors, will list Puerto Rico, USVI,
Mexico, Philippines, other Caribbean Islands, Guam, Maraiana Islands,
American Samoa, other foreign countries, etc. with four/five/six/etc.
character ALPHA-numeric codes for those directories. These ALPHA-num
codes are NOT YPA assigned codes, but rather codes assigned internally
by a book distributor.

If these non-US, non-Canada, directories want to have a standard YPA
six-digit code, then they most likely have been assigned a 10Xxxx
range code, with NO "geographic logic", on a "first-come, first-served"
sequential basis. This would include Guam/Marianas/American Samoa, etc.
even since they are now incorporated into the NANP, as well as the
three other pseudo-NANP US/UN Pacific locations of Palau, Micronesia,
Marshall Islands. It would also include PR, USVI, and the Philippines,
as well as other non-US yet-still-NANP Caribbean Islands!

I specficially asked about the 000xxx, 084xxx, 097xxx, 098xxx, and
099xxx ranges.

000xxx was traditionally assigned to Mexico! And I looked at the
VeriZon directory ordering website, http://www.directorystore.com/
and noticed that ALL of Mexico's directories are referenced with
000xxx range code numbers!

Also, there are THREE Bahamas Islands directories which have 000xxx
range codes according to VeriZon's website ...

000410 Grand Bahama Island -- Freeport, Lucaya, etc.
000414 Abaco Bahamas
000418 Bahamas "overall"

These were the ONLY Caribbean Islands' directories listed at VZ'
website which seemed to have five/six-digit standardized YPA-type
NUMERIC codes. All of the other Caribbean islands' directories
listed at VZ' website INCLUDING those for PR and USVI have ALPHA-num
code formats!

I know that Gwillim Law mentioned that his old Grand Bahama Island
directory, which would have been at the time that Contel was the ILEC
for Gr.Bahama Island including the towns of Freeport, Lucaya, etc.,
was a 97xxx range. But the lady at YPA said that 097xxx is NOT a
regular range. It is mostly "vacant" with the exception of INTERNAL
YPA RECORD-KEEPING assignments! She couldn't find ANYTHING, even
historical, within 097xxx, for the Bahamas!

She also told me that in addition to 000xxx being assigned to Mexico,
it WAS assigned to those three Bahama based directories until they
were discontinued in 2005! And she told me that many university phone
books and other specialty directories, such as fax, internet/email,
etc. have been assigned codes from 000xxx.

She also told me that 084xxx was either unused, or internal record-
keeping, and found NOTHING historical for the Philippines. Similarly,
she told me that there was NOTHING currently in her database for
Puerto Rico under 098xxx, nor the US Virgin Islands under 099xxx,
not even any historical references.

The 084xxx, 097xxx, 098xxx, 099xxx ranges were either totally or
mostly vacant/unused, or else used internally for record-keeping by
YPA, with NO historical references, respectively, to the Pilippines
under 84, Bahamas/Caribbean under 97, Puerto Rico under 98, nor the
USVI under 99.

Of course, over the decades, especially with the spin-off into a
separate NYPS/YPA in 1975, and then the 1984 breakup/divestiture of
the Bell System/AT&T, I would assume that the historical uses of
84 for the Philippines, 97 for the Bahamas -- and maybe any other
Caribbean Islands, 98 for Puerto Rico, 99 for the USVI, might have
"dropped" from their records...

There are several publications from YPA that I do intend on buying,
such as the "Directory Index", and the "Directory Price List".

While we know that the Bahamas used the 097xxx range many years ago,
and more recently had used the 000xxx range, sharing from Mexico;
and that Puerto Rico HAD USED the 098xxx range and the USVI HAD USED
the 099xxx range many years ago, I still do wonder about what the OTHER
NANP-Caribbean Islands MIGHT have used many years ago!

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina

In the latest issue of "Telecom Update" from Ian Angus'
"Telemanagement", issue 550, dated 13 October 2006
http://www.angustel.ca/update/up550.html
there are a few references to Bell Canada/Avaya, as well
as their recent tariff filings for 811 in Canada.

In Canada, the CRTC has announced that 811 will be used for
"non-urgent health teletriage service providers", although in
the US, the FCC has announced that 811 is to be used for
"one call", in "call before you dig".

The reference from Ian Angus' "Telecom Update" on 811 tariff
filings by Bell Canada/Aliant with the CRTC is as follows...

--------------------------------------------------------
BELL AND BELL ALIANT FILE 8-1-1 TARIFFS: Bell Canada and
Bell Aliant have filed tariffs for 8-1-1 service, which
will route calls to the appropriate "non-urgent health
teletriage service providers" within a province.
See Telecom Update #488, http://www.angustel.ca/update/up488.html
The telcos have requested approval by October 20,
with six months notice required to implement the service.
The telcos' nomadic VoIP services will not be able to route
8-1-1 calls.
--------------------------------------------------------

Also, there are further developments in the corporate
structure and organization of the Bell Canada/Alaint "family".
It seems that the BCE, Bell Canada Enterprises, holding
company is being dissolved. I wonder what this will mean for
other "Bell family" telcos in Canada, such as Northern Tel in
northern/east-central Ontario (705), Telebec in northern Quebec
(819) and scattered throughout southern Quebec (450, 819, 418),
NorthwesTel in northern BC (250) and in the northern territories
of Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut (all 867) ??

Here is what is stated in Ian Angus' "Telecom Update" ...

-------------------------------------------------------------
BELL CANADA TAKES THE INCOME TRUST ROAD: In a move that could
reduce the company's annual tax bill by hundreds of millions
of dollars, BCE is proposing to convert Bell Canada into an
income trust. After approval by regulators and by a shareholders'
meeting in January, BCE common shares will be exchanged on a
one-for-one basis for units in the new Bell Canada Income Fund,
and Bell will buy back all preferred shares.

Simultaneously, Bell Aliant is proposing to acquire the 36.4%
of Bell Nordiq it doesn't now hold, a move that would merge
those two income funds into one company.

BCE -- R.I.P.: As part of the income trust conversion, Bell Canada
will eliminate its holding company, BCE Inc., which was created in
1983 to shield Bell's non-telco operations from CRTC regulation.
Over the years BCE has purchased companies as diverse as
Trans Canada Pipelines, Montreal Trust, Teleglobe, and CTV --
and in every case took substantial losses when it sold them.

CEO Michael Sabia says that elimination of BCE reflects
"our plan to focus on Bell and our communications operations.
That is the business we know. That is the business we will
stick to."
--------------------------------------------------------

Back in July/August 2006, I started a brief posting thread on some
Telcordia-TRA references to changes in dialing/numbering/etc. w/r/t
Mexico Cellular phones, at least those which are "Caller-Pays" for
the airtime. Within Mexico, those calls have been dialed as 044
followed by the ten-digit Mexican cellular's domestic telephone
number, even if the cellular phone was in the same city or local
area. Mexico's cellulars have NOT been segregated into separate
"Cellular" area codes, but are similar to the NANP in that the
numbers are based upon landline geographic areas and codes.

But since callers from foreign countries are being billed higher
rates to call Mexican cellular phones, rates higher than when those
callers call Mexican landline phones/numbers, Mexico is now beginning
to require that the digit '1' be prefixed between the +52 country code
and the ten-digit Mexican cellular's domestic number. This apparantly
applies to at least international signaling into Mexico from other
countries, and would also most likely need to be dialed by the calling
party as well when calling Mexican cellulars from outside of Mexico.

There have been some downloadable docs at Telcordia-TRA's website,
but I can't remember if there were any similar documents at the ITU's
website, regarding this. I was unable to navigate Mexico's COFETEL
regulatory website to find any such documents or references, since
I couldn't find any "English" version of the website -- it's Espanol
ONLY.

But I did attempt to email COFETEL. However, I got a bounceback that
the mailbox was full. And I attempted to call one of the referenced
contact individuals at Cofetel as well, but the individual answering
the phone didn't speak English -- and I don't speak/understand Espanol.

So, I have ONE billed call to Mexico, via AT&T, one minute.

The full international/worldwide number is displayed, twelve digits
long, 52 followed by the ten-digit Mexican domestic number, with NO
spaces, dashes, dots, nor any other kind of parsing. The number was
in Mexico City DF, which is +52-55 and then eight local digits. Local
numbers in Mexico have been able to start off with '1' for many years
now -- and now can start off with '9' since as of circa-1998, special
access codes of the '9X' format have been changed to be of the '0X(X)'
format. Local numbers in Mexico have mostly never started off with '0'
since even before circa-1998, special codes for Business Office,
Repair, the Operator, Police, etc. have been '0X'. Those expanded
mostly to '0XX' with circa-1998, and there are still no local numbers
within Mexico starting with '0'.

No ten-digit domestic numbers in Mexico start off with '0', and with
the expansion from eight-domestic-digits to ten-domestic-digits
circa-2001, there also haven't been any new area codes, i.e., longer
format domestic numbers, beginning with '1'. Thus the use of '1' after
the +52 and before the ten-digit domestic number for calling Mexican
cellular phones/numbers from outside of Mexico won't cause any conflict
or ambiguity with domestic ten-digit numbers starting off with '1'
since there are presently no such numbers/codes.

Anyhow, the Mexico City DF eight digit number that I called did start
off with '1'. The called number was printed on my bill as 52551XXXxxxx.

The desination location was NOT printed as an abbreviation of Mexico
City DF. I do remember having made some calls to +52 Mexico in the
late-1990s-era to find out about numbering/dialing changes/expansions
back then, and I remember some heavily abbreviated city names being
displayed on my AT&T billing. Of course, the domestic number in Mexico
was two digits shorter at the time, +52 followed by eight digits. I
also remember the "NANP-state" abbreviation of Mexico (probably
Telcordia-Common-Language standard) was diaplayed as well, 'MX'.

But in this recent call to Mexico City DF, MX... the location name was
printed as "Band 7, MX". The date and time that I placed the call was
indicated, and the length of the call, actually the length of the
billing, was '1' minute. The charge was 15-cents. My AT&T international
plan bills me at 15-c/min 24/7/365 for 1+ direct dialed calls from
home, and card calls placed via 1-800-CALL-ATT.

I guess AT&T probably now prints all Mexico destinations with the
"rate band" instead of the city. I do know that MOST non-NANP locations
are printed on AT&T bills as just the country name, without any
indication that it was Paris if France, or London or Birmingham or
Manchester/etc. if the UK, etc. Although I do think that "specialty"
and mobile number ranges for non-NANP countries do print the word
"Mobile" with the country dialed for the destination location.

Mexico still seems to be tariffed with the FCC using about seven or
eight "rate bands", but I don't know how relevant those are today for
most billed dialed calls to Mexico, especially for those on discount
plans and the like.

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina

The final stages for the 519/226 ON and 514/438 PQ NPA overlays,
as well as mandatory ten-digit intra-NPA local dialing for 613 ON,
819 PQ, and also 450 PQ, started this past weekend.

While permissive intra-NPA local ten-digit dialing has most likely
been possible throughout 519 ON, 613 ON, 819 PQ, 450 PQ, 514 PQ,
for a number of years now, it was only this past Summer, on
Saturday 17-June-2006, when the "official, publicly announced"
permissive ten-digit, alongside seven-digit, intra-NPA local dialing
period began to be phased in over a week, ending on Saturday
24-June-2006. This "official" period of permissive ten/seven-digit
intra-NPA local dialing was actually a "Canadian-specific REMINDER"
period. If one dialed a local intra-NPA call as seven-digits, the
caller would first get a brief "NAGGING" message from their local
central office switch, indicating that their call would go through
as dialed, however that the caller should begin NOW to get into the
habit of dialing ALL TEN DIGITS, area code followed by seven-digits,
for such intra-NPA local calls, as part of preparation of the
overlays, or simply streamlining/standardizing with mandatory ten-
digits for local intra-NPA calls as in the current situations with
613/ON, 819/ON, 450/PQ, which are NOT being overlaid at this time,
but are going mandatory ten-digits for intra-NPA local calls.

The schedule for finalizing mandatory ten-digit intra-NPA local
dialing, as well as the 519/226 ON and 514/438 PQ overlays is as
follows, this is what I had posted earlier, back in March 2006:

Here is a basic "timeline" regarding the overlays and mandatory
ten-digit local dialing in this part of Canada throughout this year,
2006:

Friday   28-April-2006,
new POTS 226-NXX c.o.codes can begin to be "pre-assigned"
for activation in Ontario in the Fall.

Thursday 11-May-2006,
new POTS 438-NXX c.o.codes can begin to be "pre-assigned"
for activation in Quebec in the Fall.

Saturday 17-June-2006, begin the "phase-in",
Saturday 24-June-2006, the "phase-in" should be completed,
ALL ten-digit "reminder" announcements begin to take effect for ALL
area codes in question, 519, 514, 613, 819, 450, for local calls which
continue to be dialed on a seven-digit basis. I assume that this also
applies on seven-digit dialed local calls to/from other adjacent area
codes which internally will continue to have straight seven-digit
local dialing.

Saturday 14-October-2006, begin the "phase-in",
Saturday 21-October-2006, the "phase-in" should be completed,
Ten-digit local dialing goes MANDATORY within NPA 519 Ontario.

Saturday 21-October-2006, begin the "phase-in",
Saturday 28-October-2006, the "phase-in" should be completed,
Ten-digit local dialing goes MANDATORY within NPAs 613/ON and 819/PQ.

Saturday 28-October-2006, new POTS 226-NXX c.o.codes in Ontario
can begin to take effect, overlaying NPA 519, these could have been
pre-assigned as early as 28-April-2006.

Saturday 28-October-2006, begin the "phase-in",
Saturday 04-November-2006, the "phase-in" should be completed,
Ten-digit local dialing goes MANDATORY within NPA 514 Quebec.

Saturday 04-November-2006, begin the "phase-in",
Saturday 11-November-2006, the "phase-in" should be completed,
Ten-digit local dialing goes MANDATORY within NPA 450 Quebec.

Saturday 11-November-2006, new POTS 438-NXX c.o.codes in Quebec
can begin to take effect, overlaying NPA 514, these could have been
pre-assigned as early as 11-May-2006.

With Saturday 11-November-2006, there will be a continuous stretch of
overlays or at least mandatory ten-digit local dialing regions, across
southern Ontario through southwestern Quebec, which includes NPAs
519/226, 905/289, 416/647, 613, 819, 450, 514/438.

NPA 613 would be the next area code in this ON/PQ Bell Canada region
to need relief, which is currently estimated to need relief around the
4th-Quarter in 2015. There is no official announcement of the relief
code, which many expect to be an overlay since 613 will already have
been in mandatory ten-digit local dialing since Fall 2006 -- about
nine-years, but the "guess" is for 343 as the new overlay code, when
actually needed. However, with ten-digit dialing mandatory within 613
since Fall 2006, it really doesn't matter what numerics are used for
the relief area code because ten-digit mandatory dialing will "moot"
all previous "conflicts".

In western Canada, in AB and BC, there is currently relief planning
for the NPA codes in these provinces. The overlay is the "favored"
method of relief, although there are split options also being
considered.

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina

CNAC has already assigned a few geographic/POTS 226-NXX codes, see:
http://www.cnac.ca/data/ac226.htm

It doesn't indicate the effective date though,
which could be no earlier than Saturday 28-October-2006.

However, it doesn't seem that any carriers or service providers
in the Montreal PQ metro area, i.e., in those six ratecenters in
the current 514 NPA, have requested any 438-NXX codes.

No such geographic/POTS 438-NXX c.o.codes are yet indicated at:
http://www.cnac.ca/data/ac226.htm

The earliest date that such coulds "could" begin to take effect,
if "pre-assigned", is Saturday 11-November-2006.

Certain 438-NXX code combinations are flagged as "not assignable"
for one or another reason, and there are some "special" 438-NXX
code combinations flagged as such, i.e., the eight 438-N11 codes,
438-555, 438-950, 438-976, etc.

And 438-510, 438-610, 438-810 are indeed indicated as "test purposes"
for Rogers-CallNet on 510, Bell Canada on 610, and MTS-Allstream on
810.

The 519 NPA in Ontario is in a severe "jeopardy" situation though,
while the 514 NPA in the Montreal PQ metro area doesn't seem to be
in such a "severe" state of "jeopardy".

mjc

CGI provides local Calling Area Data for all provinces except BC & AB.
Does anyone know where I could obtain local Calling Area Data for BC &
AB? Is it something that can be abstracted from the TPM or LERG?

thanks!
Anthony

adcozzi at yahoo dot ca wrote:

> CGI provides Local Calling Area Data for all provinces except
> BC and AB.

Is CGI some kind of private, non-telco-owned, tariff publishing
company? Sort of like CCMI?

Also, what about local calling area w.r.t. Yukon, NWT, Nunavut?
I do know that there is at least ONE local calling corridor between
YT and BC. The BC point also happens to be NorthwesTel, NOT Telus;
Most all of northern BC has NorthwesTel as their ILEC, NOT Telus,
once known as GT&E's BC-Tel, although the isolated northwestern BC
location of Atlin BC has Telus, once GTE's BC-Tel as their ILEC.

> Does anyone know where I could obtain local Calling Area Data fo
> BC and AB? Is it something that can be abstracted from the TPM or
> LERG?  Thanks! Anthony

The TPM and the LERG/etc. do NOT have local calling area information.
Ray's Local Calling Guide database/website is the only comprehensive
free public source that I'm aware of. Tariff filings with state
agencies, and the FCC and CRTC would also have individual location-
specific local calling area data, but even if all of it would be
available on the "web", you'd have to go to each individual state or
federal FCC/CRTC tariff website to get the data.

Telcordia-TRA does sell a product regarding local calling areas...
the "Telcordia Local Calling Area Data Source", see:
http://www.trainfo.com/products_services/tra/catalog_details.html#LCA

I don't know how much they want for a license -- most Telcordia-TRA
and other Telcordia/Bellcore documents are QUITE pricy! :(

But 1-732-699-6700 or 1-866-NPA-NXXs (1-866-672-6997) is the Telcordia
TRA customer service number.

I don't know if Bell Canada still has their "Morris Group", but they
existed back in the later 1990s-era, and had several routing/rating
products along the lines of Bellcore/Telcordia TRA, but their products
were "Canada-specific". At the time, routing/network/etc. data was NOT
yet available through Bellcore-TRA products, but routing/billing type
data was available in Bellcore-TRA's TPM and similar "rating" based
products.

I seem to remember that the Bell Canada -- or was it part of the now-
defunct "Stentor"? -- "Morris Group" had some kind of Canada-based
local calling area data source, back in the later 1990s era.

But since Canadian routing/network/switch data became incorporated
into the Bellcore/Telcordia-TRA BIRRDS/RDBS databases and the LERG/etc.
paper products, or maybe with the demise of "Stentor"?, Bell Canada's
"Morris Group" has ceased to exist?

Good Luck!

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina

>Is CGI some kind of private, non-telco-owned, tariff publishing
>company? Sort of like CCMI?

CGI provides IT consulting, products and services etc... but they
have a lot of Telco background as they used to be part of Bell Canada
before their were totally spun off a few years back.

> Also, what about local calling area w.r.t. Yukon, NWT, Nunavut?
> I do know that there is at least ONE local calling corridor between
> YT and BC. The BC point also happens to be NorthwesTel, NOT Telus;
> Most all of northern BC has NorthwesTel as their ILEC, NOT Telus,
> once known as GT&E's BC-Tel, although the isolated northwestern BC
> location of Atlin BC has Telus, once GTE's BC-Tel as their ILEC.

I thought there was one between yt and and BC but I can't find any.
that said I don't have a recent version of BC data so I could be
missing something. there is at least one between YT & NT though.
and yes part of the 250 area code in northern BC is run by NWTel who
is more affliated with Bell Canada than Telus.

> The TPM and the LERG/etc. do NOT have local calling area > > > > >
> information. Ray's Local Calling Guide database/website is the only
> comprehensive
> free public source that I'm aware of.

So the rate center doesn't tell us the LCA?? Can you get U.S. LCA
from the TPM? One of our old billing partners always claimed it could
be done but never showed me how. maybe they were full of BS.

I think Morris group may have been the basis for CGI. Stentor doesn't
really exist anymore as far as I know. One of their legacy systems
BRATS which is a billing data routing system is still around but that
is run by Bell Canada directly now. Stentor I believe was phased out
when Bell tried to redo half its billing systems which amdocs. I
understand that was a huge disaster and has been mostly abandoned.

thanks for the info!!

adcozzi at yahoo dot ca wrote:

> markjcuccia at yahoo dot com wrote:

>> Also, what about local calling area w.r.t. Yukon, NWT, Nunavut?
>> I do know that there is at least ONE local calling corridor between
>> YT and BC. The BC point also happens to be NorthwesTel, NOT Telus;
>> Most all of northern BC has NorthwesTel as their ILEC, NOT Telus,
>> once known as GT&E's BC-Tel, although the isolated northwestern BC
>> location of Atlin BC has Telus, once GTE's BC-Tel as their ILEC.

> I thought there was one between yt and and BC but I can't find any.
> that said I don't have a recent version of BC data so I could be
> missing something. there is at least one between YT & NT though.
> and yes part of the 250 area code in northern BC is run by NWTel who
> is more affliated with Bell Canada than Telus.

At Ray's Local Calling Guide Website, under "Seldom Asked Questions":
http://www.localcallingguide.com/saq.php

"What about local calling arrangements across provincial or
territorial boundaries?"

Lower Post BC 250-779 and Watson Lake YT 867-536

I can't find anything between YT and NWT at this page at Ray Chow's
website, though.

>> The TPM and the LERG/etc. do NOT have local calling area
>> information. Ray's Local Calling Guide database/website
>> is the only comprehensive free public source that I'm aware of.

> So the rate center doesn't tell us the LCA?? Can you get US LCA
> from the TPM? One of our old billing partners always claimed it
> could be done but never showed me how. maybe they were full of BS.

The US ratecenter or Canadian ratecentre, different spellings at the
end! :) is not enough information by itself to determine LCA data!

You'd have to have the actual tariff specifics on what is local keyed
into a database or in a paper document, to be able to look up the
ratecenter/centre and then find LCA data. And there's no difference
whether it's Canadian ratecentres or US ratecenters being looked up in
Telcordia-TRA's TPM/etc. products!

> I think Morris group may have been the basis for CGI. Stentor
> doesn't really exist anymore as far as I know. One of their legacy
> systems BRATS which is a billing data routing system is still around
> but that is run by Bell Canada directly now. Stentor I believe was
> phased out when Bell tried to redo half its billing systems which
> amdocs. I  understand that was a huge disaster and has been mostly
> abandoned.

Bellcore-now-Telcordia did maintain a database known as BRADS, and one
known as BRIDS. I forget what the acronyms stood for, but the 'B' was
for "Bellcore". The 'R' was RATING, not routing. I think that the 'A'
was for Administrative and the 'I" for Interactive. The 'DS' would be
for Database System.

Canada did participate in Bellcore/Telcordia RATING databases and
products from the time that the US Bell System was broken up in 1984.
But they maintained their own routing/network data, separate from the
US and scanty info on the Caribbean, maintained by Bellcore-TRA, until
finally joining in with the Bellcore/Telcordia TRA BIRRDS/RDBS/LERG/
etc. routing/network/etc. database/products circa 1998/99.

Back in 1993, I was told by someone with either Stentor or Bell Canada
that Canada did participate in Bellcore's BRADS billing/rating service
database, but still hadn't yet at the time agreed to integrate their
own internal routing/network databases into Bellcore-TRA's RDBS/LERG/
etc.

I assume that AT&T, and possibly MCI and Sprint, exchanged network and
routing info with the Telecom-Canada/Stentor organization or with the
Bell and other major provincial telcos themselves, prior to Canada
finally participating in the LERG/RDBS/BIRRDS.

Pre-1984, TCTS/Telecom-Canada and its telcos -- esp. Bell Canada which
was actually a less-than-50%-held-by-AT&T BOC prior to 1975 -- and
AT&T Long Lines in the US, most certainly sharted numbering/routing/
billing/switch/etc. data, as documented in the Traffic Routing Guide,
the Operating Rate & Route Guide, the Distance Dialing Reference Guide,
and the Long Lines Routing Plan.

But Local Calling Area detail has always been considered a "state-by-
state" thing, or prior to the CRTC taking over virtually all Canadian
telecom regulation, a "province-by-province" thing. There was never
a consolidated single source of tariff details on local calling areas
in the US/Canada until the Internet with Ray Chow's site, and with
the more recent Telcordia product I mentioned in the previous reply.
Of course, private companies such as CCMI and others such as CGI, did
compile and publish LCA/EAS data, but for a FEE!

Local/EAS calling info is still of use -- although more and more people
have discount plans, large buckets of minutes, cellular, VoIP, etc.
But for those who only need "base" local/EAS service, the exact LCA
details are very much needed!

mjc

--- In local-calling-guide@yahoogroups.com, "Mark J. Cuccia"
<markjcuccia@...> wrote:
>
> adcozzi at yahoo dot ca wrote:
>
> > markjcuccia at yahoo dot com wrote:
>
> >> Also, what about local calling area w.r.t. Yukon, NWT, Nunavut?
> >> I do know that there is at least ONE local calling corridor between
> >> YT and BC. The BC point also happens to be NorthwesTel, NOT Telus;
> >> Most all of northern BC has NorthwesTel as their ILEC, NOT Telus,
> >> once known as GT&E's BC-Tel, although the isolated northwestern BC
> >> location of Atlin BC has Telus, once GTE's BC-Tel as their ILEC.
>
> > I thought there was one between yt and and BC but I can't find any.
> > that said I don't have a recent version of BC data so I could be
> > missing something. there is at least one between YT & NT though.
> > and yes part of the 250 area code in northern BC is run by NWTel who
> > is more affliated with Bell Canada than Telus.
>
> At Ray's Local Calling Guide Website, under "Seldom Asked Questions":
> http://www.localcallingguide.com/saq.php
>
> "What about local calling arrangements across provincial or
> territorial boundaries?"
>
> Lower Post BC 250-779 and Watson Lake YT 867-536
>
> I can't find anything between YT and NWT at this page at Ray Chow's
> website, though.
>
> >> The TPM and the LERG/etc. do NOT have local calling area
> >> information. Ray's Local Calling Guide database/website
> >> is the only comprehensive free public source that I'm aware of.
>
> > So the rate center doesn't tell us the LCA?? Can you get US LCA
> > from the TPM? One of our old billing partners always claimed it
> > could be done but never showed me how. maybe they were full of BS.
>
> The US ratecenter or Canadian ratecentre, different spellings at the
> end! :) is not enough information by itself to determine LCA data!
>
> You'd have to have the actual tariff specifics on what is local keyed
> into a database or in a paper document, to be able to look up the
> ratecenter/centre and then find LCA data. And there's no difference
> whether it's Canadian ratecentres or US ratecenters being looked up in
> Telcordia-TRA's TPM/etc. products!
>
> > I think Morris group may have been the basis for CGI. Stentor
> > doesn't really exist anymore as far as I know. One of their legacy
> > systems BRATS which is a billing data routing system is still around
> > but that is run by Bell Canada directly now. Stentor I believe was
> > phased out when Bell tried to redo half its billing systems which
> > amdocs. I  understand that was a huge disaster and has been mostly
> > abandoned.
>
> Bellcore-now-Telcordia did maintain a database known as BRADS, and one
> known as BRIDS. I forget what the acronyms stood for, but the 'B' was
> for "Bellcore". The 'R' was RATING, not routing. I think that the 'A'
> was for Administrative and the 'I" for Interactive. The 'DS' would be
> for Database System.
>
> Canada did participate in Bellcore/Telcordia RATING databases and
> products from the time that the US Bell System was broken up in 1984.
> But they maintained their own routing/network data, separate from the
> US and scanty info on the Caribbean, maintained by Bellcore-TRA, until
> finally joining in with the Bellcore/Telcordia TRA BIRRDS/RDBS/LERG/
> etc. routing/network/etc. database/products circa 1998/99.
>
> Back in 1993, I was told by someone with either Stentor or Bell Canada
> that Canada did participate in Bellcore's BRADS billing/rating service
> database, but still hadn't yet at the time agreed to integrate their
> own internal routing/network databases into Bellcore-TRA's RDBS/LERG/
> etc.
>
> I assume that AT&T, and possibly MCI and Sprint, exchanged network and
> routing info with the Telecom-Canada/Stentor organization or with the
> Bell and other major provincial telcos themselves, prior to Canada
> finally participating in the LERG/RDBS/BIRRDS.
>
> Pre-1984, TCTS/Telecom-Canada and its telcos -- esp. Bell Canada which
> was actually a less-than-50%-held-by-AT&T BOC prior to 1975 -- and
> AT&T Long Lines in the US, most certainly sharted numbering/routing/
> billing/switch/etc. data, as documented in the Traffic Routing Guide,
> the Operating Rate & Route Guide, the Distance Dialing Reference Guide,
> and the Long Lines Routing Plan.
>
> But Local Calling Area detail has always been considered a "state-by-
> state" thing, or prior to the CRTC taking over virtually all Canadian
> telecom regulation, a "province-by-province" thing. There was never
> a consolidated single source of tariff details on local calling areas
> in the US/Canada until the Internet with Ray Chow's site, and with
> the more recent Telcordia product I mentioned in the previous reply.
> Of course, private companies such as CCMI and others such as CGI, did
> compile and publish LCA/EAS data, but for a FEE!
>
> Local/EAS calling info is still of use -- although more and more people
> have discount plans, large buckets of minutes, cellular, VoIP, etc.
> But for those who only need "base" local/EAS service, the exact LCA
> details are very much needed!
>
> mjc
>
Stentor and Bell Canada as they were at the times mentioned no longer
exist.

Numbering in Canada is now handled by the Canadian Numbering
Administrator or CNA and you can get information about them at
http://www.cnac.ca/npa_codes/npa_map.htm

Jim

Snipping out all previous exchanges between Anthony (eadcozzi) and
myself, im.roche at datawire dot net wrote:


> Stentor and Bell Canada as they were at the times mentioned no
> longer exist.
>
> Numbering in Canada is now handled by the Canadian Numbering
> Administrator or CNA and you can get information about them at
> http://www.cnac.ca/npa_codes/npa_map.htm


Numbering, i.e., NPA-NXX c.o.code assignments, in Canada, has been
handled by SAIC-CNAC since 1998 or so. They took over the c.o.code
assignments, and other misc. numbering assignments, from the dominant
ILEC "provincial" telcos, and from the mostly now defunct Stentor
at that time. In the US, Lockheed-Martin NANPA, now Neustar-NANPA,
took over US-based NPA-NXX c.o.code assignments and such from the
dominant ILECs, mostly BOCs, about the very same time too, 1998.

But the discussion between Anthony and myself were about local calling
arrangments within Canada, not numbering per-se. NANPA and the CNAC
don't really get involved with local calling arrangments as such.

This is still the domain of the dominant ILECs, although CLECs and
wireless will frequently set up different, usually larger, local
calling areas for their own customers -- and also the domain of
individual state regulatory bodies and the FCC in the US, and of the
CRTC in Canada.

But even though the dominant ILECs in the US, Canada, and the NANP-
Caribbean, no longer handle numbering issues, specifically c.o.code
assignments -- this is now the domain of either regulatory/government
agencies, or as in the case of the US/Canada, of "impartial, third-
party non-government, industry support agencies" -- the dominant ILECs
as well as CLECs, wireless providers, etc. do still maintain various
numbering/dialing "policy" groups within their organizations.

And as for numbering assignments themselves, the removal of that
function from the dominant ILEC, over to a government/regulatory
agency or a non-government impartial third-party industry support
group -- this has also happened elsewhere throughout the world,
particularly in more developed countries, as competition in local
telecom becomes more common, and the dominant incumbent telco to still
be assigning basic numbering resources, i.e., central office codes,
area/city codes, etc., is considered to be a conflict of interest and
even anti-competitive, in today's environment....

But SAIC-CNAC in Canada and Neustar-NANPA in the US do NOT really get
involved with local dialing/calling arrangements...

mjc

Regarding any possible EAS/Local Calling between YT and NWT, or
NWT and Nunavut, or one of the territories and an adjacent province
or Alaska for that matter, with the exception of the Lower Post BC
and Watson Lake YT arrangement, I emailed the question to a friend
who lives in Whitehorse YT and has worked for NorthwesTel for many
years now. He replied that he knows of NOTHING in local/EAS calling
with NorthwesTel that crosses a tettitory/province boundary, except
for the Lower Post BC / Watson Lake YT corridor......

The email exchange follows below:

----------------------------------------

> markjcuccia at yahoo dot com wrote:

>> Geoff:
>>
>> I know that there is a local calling arrangement between
>> Lower Post BC 250-779 and Watson Lake YT 867-536 ...
>>  but are there any local calling arrangements between NWT
>> and YT? What about NWT and Nunavut? Or between any adjacent
>> province and NWT or Nunavut?
>>
>> Thanks!
>> mjc

> Hi, Mark,
>
> NWT - YT - none - nothing is under 40 miles.  NWT - Nunavut - none -
> nothing under 40 miles.  In fact, the only local arrangement WITHIN
> Nunavut is between Arctic Bay and Nanisivik, and Northwestel is
> presently seeking to remove service from Nanisivik ASAP because the
> mine's demolition contractor tore down the phone company's worker's
> residence, is not maintaining the road from the airport, and is
> causing problems with the overhead phone lines!
>
> There are no local calling arrangements between any territory and a
> province, other than Lower Post-Watson Lake, but even that is not
> inter-exchange - Lower Post is a locality of the Watson Lake rate
> centre.
>
> The only things that resemble local calling are:
>
> Burwash Landing-Destruction Bay - separate communities in phone book,
> historically Burwash was rural party lines from DBay, then Burwash
> received its own Redcom switch but shared the 841 prefix as a
> Locality (rate band 3).
>
> Nanisivik - Arctic Bay - a true example of EAS - separate directory
> communities, different NXXes and different exchange equipment, all
> inherited from Bell Canada in 1992
>
> Behchoko (formerly Rae - Edzo) - one community in phone book, two
> NXXes, different exchange equipment; Edzo is an "island base rate
> area" of Rae.
>
> Elsa - Keno City - one community in phone book, one NXX, not sure
> about exchange equipment; Keno used to be rural party lines from
> Elsa but is now the prime part of the rate centre.
>
> Watson Lake - Lower Post - Upper Liard - Watson Lake Airport -
> Cottage Lots - Lower Post is listed separately and has its own NXX
> and exchange, while the others share an NXX and directory listing
> and three are digital loop remotes of Watson Lake, but they are all
> one rate centre, with Watson Lake Airport, Cottage Lots, Upper Liard
> and Lower Post as localities of Watson Lake.
>
> Good Hope Lake - Cassiar - terminated as of October 31, 2006.
> Cassiar has been the rate centre with Good Hope Lake as the
> locality; Good Hope Lake will now become the rate centre and Cassiar,
> with NXX 778, will disappear.  The few remaining customers have been
> converted to Good Hope Lake customers.
>
> Wonowon - Blueberry - Upper Halfway - all share 772 prefix.  Wonowon
> has its own exchange, Blueberry and Upper Halfway share another at
> Blueberry (which is why call display won't carry between all 772
> numbers).  Wonowon and Blueberry and some Upper Halfway numbers are
> listed under Wonowon, while other Upper Halfway numbers are listed
> under Upper Halfway.  Wonowon is actually a very small serving area,
> while Blueberry serves both wireline and wireless over an extended
> area mostly north of Wonowon.
>
> Fort Smith NT-Fort Fitzgerald AB - share 872 prefix, same directory
> section, Fort Fitz is rural lines from Fort Smith (pre 2001, it
> would probably have been made a locality)
>
> Whitehorse - Marsh Lake - first EAS established under Northwestel's
> tariff - other than Arctic Bay-Nanisivik, the only true EAS set-up.
> Marsh Lake is physically a remote off Whitehorse, but so are several
> other Yukon communities that aren't EAS to Whitehorse.
>
> Northwestel phone books have no case in which communities are
> combined even though part of the community has an EAS and the other
> does not.  It does, however, have four cases where a single rate
> centre is split into two separate directory sections.
>
> Speculative future EAS relationships, if the local community council
> makes a successful request for it:
>
> - Hay River-Enterprise (definite close community of interest --
> they even share a postal delivery area)
> - Tagish-Whitehorse (faint possibility)
> - Carcross-Whitehorse (faint possibility)
> - Tagish-Carcross (faint possibility)
> - Mayo-Elsa (extremely faint)
> - Fort Simpson-Jean Marie River (faint possibility)
> - Inuvik-Aklavik (some possibility)
> - Igloolik-Hall Beach (faint possibility)
>
> There may be others - the above 8 stand-out for me.
>
> Geoff

The telecom industry in Canada recently came to an agreement on
NPA Relief in British Columbia and in Alberta. This has NOT yet
been approved by the CRTC though.

Angus Telemanagement's weekly free "Telecom Updates" recently
gave some info on what is proposed.

from Angus Telecom Update #551, Friday-20-October-2006
http://www.angustel.ca/update/up551.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------
B.C. AREA CODE PLAN PROPOSED: The NPA 250 Relief Planning Committee
has agreed on a plan to solve the looming phone number shortage in
B.C., See Telecom Update #548. The proposal, one of 24 considered,
would expand Area Code 778, currently Lower Mainland only, to cover
the entire province, and eliminate current restrictions on where
new 604 numbers can be assigned in the Lower Mainland. This would
delay the need for a new Area Code in British Columbia to 2017. The
committee's proposal, which now goes to the CRTC for approval,
envisions implementation by June 2007.
-30-
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The implementation date of June 2007 is not that far away. However,
since no new area code numerics are yet being introduced, the only
directly affected people will be those in BC who currently don't
have mandatory ten-digit dialing. This seems to be an extension of
the existing boundaries, to where 778 will overlay ALL of the
existing post-1996 604 NPA code when 250 split off, as well as 778
overlaying all of the 250 NPA. When 778 was originally introduced
in November 2001 to overlay 604, it only overlaid the various
ratecenters of Vancouver BC Metro, as well as the adjacent
ratecenters of Mission BC and Abbotsford BC. But other ratecenters
outside of Vancouver Metro, Mission, Abbosford, yet still in the
lower southwest mainland, 604 yet not overlaid with 778, also had
to introduce mandatory ten-digit local dialing.

Ten-digit local dialing might already be permissive in the "Telus"
areas of 250 in BC. If the industry proposed plan is approved by the
CRTC, then ten-digit local dialing will become mandatory throughout
all of BC, and then 778 will eventually overlay all of the province,
both the 250 areas which split from 604 in 1996/97, as well as the
604 areas not presently overlaid with 778. Since no new area code
altogather is being introduced, there is no direct affect for the
rest of the NANP and world, so implementation of an overlay expansion,
which included mandatory ten-digit dialing in the local affected area,
can be done in a shorter timeframe.

and as for Alberta...

from Angus Telecom Update #552, Friday-27-October-2006
http://www.angustel.ca/update/up552.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SOLUTION PROPOSED FOR ALBERTA NUMBER SHORTAGE: The NPA 403/780 Relief
Planning Committee has agreed on a plan to solve the looming phone
number shortage in Alberta, see Telecom Update #548. If approved by
the CRTC, the proposal would leave the existing codes 403 and 780
unchanged, and add a new code, probably 587 or 825, as an overlay on
both. This proposal would result in mandatory 10-digit local dialing
throughout Alberta, beginning early in 2009.
-30-
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The master list of area codes which included specifics on future
code reservations, inadvertantly  released on at-the-time-LM-CIS-IMS
NANPA's public website in October 1998, did indeed indicate 825 as
the reserved area code for future 403 AB relief.

Today, SAIC-Canada's Canadian NPA-NXX central office code assignments
pages at their website indicates several 403-NXX codes and 780-NXX
codes as unassignable since that NXX code combination is also a future
reserved Canadian NPA code. Cross-referencing both the 403 and 780
pages, both 587 and 825 as c.o.codes are the only two codes which
appear as "unassignable" in both 403 and 780. So, it's more than
likely that a possible province-wide overlay to both 403 and 780 could
be either 587 or 825.

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA

The 779 NPA overlay to 815 in northern Illinois outside of the
immediate Chicago Metro area, is scheduled for Saturday 17-March-2007.
This is the date when new "pre-assigned" 779-NXX c.o.codes can
begin to take effect. Such new 779-NXX codes could begin to be
requested by service providers for pre-assignment by NANPA as
early as 17-September-2006, last month, however nothing is yet
indicated as having been pre-assigned accoriding to NANPA's
US-NPA-NXX codes pages at their website. Mandatory 1+ten-digit
local dialing will have taken effect on Saturday 17-February-2007,
a month before any such pre-assigned 779-NXX POTS c.o.codes can
begin to take effect on 17-March-2007.

VeriZon/GTE has already started up the non-suping test-number,
779-779-0000, served out of their Princeton IL tandem/end-office,
a GTE-Automated Electric GTD-5. Actually, any 779-779-xxxx line-number
will work, although VZ/GTE, the Illinois Commerce Commission, NANPA
and TRA, etc. have indicated the specific -0000 line-number.

The 815 NPA is almost completely exhausted of 815-NXX c.o.codes!

I checked NANPA's site recently, and these at present are the only
815-NXX c.o.codes available for assignment:
618, 779, 800, 815, 888, 995

and these are specifically indicated as NOT available for assignment:
555, 700, 950, 958, 959, 976, as well as the eight N11 codes.

These six, 555, 700, 950, 958, 959, and 976, are "standard
US/Canada-wide" c.o.codes for test and other special purposes...

Note that 618 is also another Illinois NPA code, 800 and 888 are the
two most well-known toll-free area codes, 815 is the home area code,
and 779 is the future area code. All of these can be easily used as
c.o.codes within 815, since local and possibly toll calls within 815
are dialed as just seven-digits, although 1+ten-digits has been
permissive, and calls to adjacent or other area codes is mandatory
1+ten-digits. There is no dialing conflict to 800-xxxx vs. calling
to 1+800-nxx-xxxx. and intra-815 calls to 800-xxxx will become
mandatory 1+815-800-xxxx which does NOT conflict with 1+800-nxx-xxxx.
This dialing logic as applied within much of Illinois can also be
extended to the other potential c.o.codes as well.


The other Illinois area code which will SOON be overlaid is 630 for
the central/western Chicago suburbs. 630 and 847 split from 708 in
a STAGGERED three-way split back in 1996, before 773 split from 312.
630 was actually introduced in January 1995, a week BEFORE Alabama's
205/334 split, initially as a wireless overlay for the 312 and 708
Chicago Metro area, and there were indeed some 630-NXX codes assigned
to wireless providers. But the continued use of 630 as a wireless
overlay to 312 and 708 was halted later during 1995, when the
STAGGERED 3-way split of 708 was proposed for 1996.

And now 630 needs further relief. 331 was publicly announced back in
1998/99 as a future overlay to 630, but no firm dates were announced.
Instead, it was announced that 331 would overlay 630 when needed.

Similarly, 464 will overlay 708 in the southern/southwestern Chicago
suburbs when needed, and 872 or U-S-A will overlay the City of
Chicago's 312 and 773 when needed. 224 already overlaid 847 for the
northern Chicago suburbs back in December 2001.

The 630 NPA is almost completely exhausted of 630-NXX c.o.codes!

I checked NANPA's site recently, and these at present are the only
630-NXX c.o.codes available for assignment:
219, 312, 630, 666, 708, 815, 847

and these are specifically indicated as NOT available for assignment:
331, 500, 555, 700, 900, 950, 958, 959, 976,
as well as the eight N11 codes.

It's possible that 500 and 900 could be released for assignment if
things get very "close" before relief can actually take effect. Even
the 331 numerics used for the overlay area code "could" also be
released for assignment as a 630-331 c.o.code if needed.

Note that the only listed codes still available for assignment in
NPA 630 are also code numerics of other Illinois area codes, or 219
in adjacent northwest Indiana, as well as 666 the "devil's" number.
Even the home area code's numerics 630 is currently possible for
assignment as a 630-NXX c.o.code!

The same 1+ten-digits rule for all inter-NPA calling, as well as
eventually mandatory intra-NPA dialing, as described above with the
815 NPA, is also extendable to NPA 630, to allow such 630-NXX
code assginments as 630-219, 630-312, 630-630 doubling the home area
code, 630-708, 630-815, 630-847, or even if necessary 630-331.

630 will have to be overlaid with 331 sometime next year during 2007.
But as of yet no firm/official dates of implementation have been
announced. BellSouth has NOT yet opened up the 331 NPA code as a valid
NANP area code in any Lafayette central office switches. AT&T hasn't
opened up 331 as a valid NPA code in most 5ESS-OSPS operator/card
platform switches. There really should have been enough "lead time"
for implementation of the 331 NPA code, at least for the test-number.
The test-number has NOT been indicated. It will be at&t/SBC/Ameritech/
Illinois-Bell providing the 331-NXX-xxxx test-number, but even the
331-NXX code for the test-number hasn't been indicated, much less the
-xxxx line-number, or the ratecenter/switch to provide the 331-NXX
c.o.code and its test-number.

The 779-779-xxxx VZ/GTE Princeton IL GTD-5 test-number went into
effect this past Summer, June/July 2006, almost nine-months before
March 2007 when the 779 overlay to 815 is officially in effect.

The 224-444-1234 Ameritech/IL-Bell test-number for the 224 overlay to
847 in the northern Chicago suburbs was active as early as 1998/99,
and still works depending on your LD-carrier, although it supervises/
bills/charges. The 224 overlay to 847 didn't actually take effect with
new POTS 224-NXX c.o.codes until December 2001. I don't know if the
current male-voice recording on the 224-444-1234 test-number is the
same recording as used in the late 1990s though.

Hopefully, there will be enough "lead time" for the local telcos,
the IXCs, etc. to introduce the 331 NPA code into whatever switches
need to have translations updated. Some will only need to open up 331
as just three-digit translated as "331-NXX" wild-carded, while others
switches will need each actual 331-NXX c.o.code, including the one for
the TBA test-number, discretely opened up on a six-digit basis.

Hopefully the Telcordia-TRA LERG/etc. and other industry sources will
be followed by the industry over the next months when the detailed
numbering and routing information for the new 331 NPA code activation
is officially announced.

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA

Back on Wed 24 May 2006, I had posted some details regarding
reactivated NPA Relief Planning for New Mexico's 505 area code,
with 575 to be the new area code. There are various documents
at the NM-PRC's website, including a dedicated website provided
by the NM-PRC as well, http://www.nm575.info/

There were two primary NPA Relief proposals submitted by Neustar-
NANPA on behalf of the telco industry -- the overlay, and a
specific split plan. No recommendation was made by Neustar and
the telco industry as to which side would keep 505 and which side
would change to 575 if the NM-PRC voted in favor of the split.

On Thursday 9 November 2006, the NM-PRC voted in favor of the split,
with the "urban core" and the northwestern quadrant retaining 505,
and the "rest-of-the-state" changing to the new 575 NPA code.

The NM-PRC's press-release can be found in the PDF docuemnt at their
website, http://www.nmprc.state.nm.us/news/pdf/110906areab505.pdf

The particular split that the NM-PRC voted on includes eight additional
ratecenters to retain the 505 NPA, as opposed to the industry/NANPA's
split proposal submitted back this past Spring/Summer 2006. This
NM-PRC revision might not necessarily pass FCC "muster", since it
creates an "imbalance" w/r/t each side of the split for projections
of future "exhaust". The FCC has intervened in the past when various
states have approved such "lopsided" splits, especially ones involving
lopsided THREE-WAY splits -- one of the Florida-PSC approved splits
back in 1996/97, a 3-way split that involved the panhandle itself
retaining 904 including state capital Tallahassee, with Jacksonville
splitting to one new NPA -- 234 -- which was subsequently used for
the year 2000 overlay to 330 in northeastern Ohio, and Daytona
splitting to the other new NPA -- 386 -- which was actually used for
the year 2001 Daytona FL split as well as some areas west of
Jacksonville which also discontiguously split off to 386 in 2001.
The FCC overruled Florida, which revisited the 3-way split and instead
the FL-PSC had a basic split, with Jacksonville and Daytona both
temporarily retaining 904, while the panhandle to the west including
state capital Tallahassee splitting off to 850, back in 1997. I also
seem to think that Utah had originally voted for a 3-way split of 801
back in 1996/97, but the FCC overruled this because future projected
exhaust of each region, 801, 435, 385, was "lopsided" and also "wasted"
numbering resources. Utah did have 435 split off from 801 in 1997,
and now the immediate SLC Metro area is supposed to have 385 split
off discontiguously for the northern and southern "exurbs" at some
forthcoming date -- it was originally to take effect in 2000/01, but
has been postponed several times since.

ANYHOW...

Five years ago, during 2001, NANPA and the telco industry had proposed
relief for NM's 505 NPA code. There was an overlay option as well as a
split option. Relief was to have taken place during 2002/03, but prior
to relief taking effect, NM State Regulatory required NANPA and the
telco industry to put relief plans "on hold". The option that would
have been implemented at that time was the split option. The Central
Urban "core" of NM would have split from the "rest-of-the-state".
But NM State Regulatory also had required that the "rest-of-state"
retain the 505 NPA -- afterall, the rural areas were not the ones
"using up" the 505 NPA code -- while the "central urban core" of NM
would be changed to the new NPA code. When it was first announced in
Spring 2001 that NM 505 would split, the new NPA code was announced as
957. Only a few days later, the new new announced NPA code was changed
to be 575. But as already stated, the 2001 proposal for NM's 505/575
split for 2002/03, was cancelled by NM State Reuglatory before the
split could take effect as originally planned.

- The "central urban core" includes thirteen ratecenters, all of them
with Qwest/US-West/Mountain Bell as the Incumbent LEC:

Albuquerque, Belen, Bernalillo, Estancia, Laguna Acoma, Los Alamos,
Los Lunas, Moriarty, Mountainair, Pena Blanca, Santa Fe, Tijeras,
White Rock.

The Spring/Summer industry/NANPA split recommendation included several
additional ratecenters throughout the northwestern quadrant of the
state, added to the region of the "central urban core":

- All twelve NM ratecenters of Citizens/Frontier Navajo Telco:
Shiprock, Tse Bonito, Pueblo Pintado, Newcomb, Sanostee, Torreon,
Naschitti, Tohatchi, Twin Lakes, Navajo, Crown Point, Toad Lena;

- CenturyTel's Pecos NM to the northeast of the "central urban core";

- several ratecenters to the west of the "central urban core",
all the way to the NM/AZ stateline:

Qwest/Bell: Grants, Gallup;
CenturyTel: Vanderwagon, Ramah, Zuni, Pine Hill, Fence Lake;

- and two Qwest/Bell ratecenters to the northwest of the "Central
urban core", along the NM/CO stateline:  Aztec, Farmington.

This would make a total of thirty-five ratecenters in the northwestern
quadrant of NM including the "central urban core" that would be "kept
togather" in the industry's Spring/Summer 1996 split proposal. Also,
all of CenturyTel within the state would be "kept togather" in this
"central and northwestern" NPA, while all of Valor, formerly GTE,
soon to be Windstream, within the state would be "kept togather"
in the "rest-of-New-Mexico" NPA.

And, of course, all of Navajo Telecom service area within New Mexico,
12 ratecenters, would be "kept togather" in this central/northwestern
NPA. Also, since the split has been approved, and with the central/
northwest retaining 505, this will make the only region of Frontier-
Citizens' Navajo Telecom to retain its original area code! The
northeast AZ region of 24 ratecenters of Navajo changed from 602 to
520 in 1995, and then from 520 to 928 in 2001. The southeast UT region
of three ratecenters of Navajo changed from 801 to 435 in 1997.
Frontier-Citizens' Navajo Telecom is all one tandem-homing region in
northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah.
Window Rock/St.Michael's AZ in norhteastern AZ is where Navajo Tel's
DMS-100/200/TOPS is located. This DMS switch is also the HOST switch
for ALL OTHER Navajo Tel ratecenters which are REMOTES off of this
DMS-100/200/TOPS/Host.

The additional eight ratecenters which the NM-PRC has added to the
urban central corridor and northwestern quadrant, to retain the 505
area code include:

- Qwest/US-West/Mountain-Bell's Las Vegas NM, which is to the east of
CenturyTel's Pecos NM

- and seven Valor Telecom ratecenters to the north of the urban
central core -- which will "break up" Valor Telecom territory across
the 505 and 575 area codes. These seven ratecenters include:

Chimayo, Truchas, Espanola, Velarde Abiquiu, Dixon, Ojo Caliente.

Of course, it still remains to be seen whether or not the FCC will
allow this inclusion of eight more ratecenters to the region retaining
505 since as previiously mentioned, this will cause a "lopsided split"
when it comes to future projected exhaust of both 505 and 575.

Finally, according to current area code exhaust projections, it seems
that the 505/575 split will need to take place sometime during 2008 or
2009.

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina

On Thursday 9-November-2006, the FCC granted the state regulatory
agencies of the following four state: New Mexico, Washington State,
Ohio, and New York State -- the authority to begin implementation
of mandatory thousdans-blocks pooling for certain area codes within
those states. Some of these states/area codes might already have
some form of sub-c.o.code assignments by thousands-blocks, but
apparantly this recent decision expands mandatory thousand-block
assignment authority to the state agencies.

The FCC document mentions the following specific area codes within
the four above named states:

- To the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio,
the authority to implement mandatory thousands-block number pooling
in the 740 and 937 NPAs;

- To the New York State Department of Public Service,
the authority to implement mandatory thousands-block number pooling
in the 212/646, 315, 518, 631, and 845 NPAs;

- To the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission,
the authority to implement mandatory thousands-block number pooling
in the 360 and 509 NPAs;

- To the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission,
the authority to implement mandatory thousands-block number pooling
in the 505 NPA. (I assume that this will also "carry over" to 575
when it eventually splits off).

The full FCC document, DA-06-2299, can be downloaded from the FCC's
website, in either ASCII .txt, MS-Word .doc, or Adobe-Acrobat .pdf:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-2299A1.txt
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-2299A1.doc
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-2299A1.pdf

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina

Neustar-NANPA has apparantly assigned the first geographic/POTS
non-test 779-NXX c.o.code in northern Illinois. According to the
US NPA-NXX c.o.code charts available at the NANPA website, 779-435
was assigned to at&t/SBC/Ameritech/Illinois-Bell, for the Joliet
ratecenter, in the at&t/IL-Bell Chicago IL Metro LATA #358, to be
associated with the JOLTILJODS1 Stromberg-Siemens DE5 Remote Cluster
Unit switch. This assignment was apparantly made yesterday, Monday
13-November-2006, with an effective activation date of Monday
19-March-2007. The earliest possible date that any new "pre-assigned"
POTS/geographic non-test 779-NXX c.o.codes can begin to take effect
is Saturday 17-March-2007.

Of course, the VZ-GTE provided Princeton IL 779-779-0000 test-number,
although any -xxxx line-number will work, is already assigned and
active, the 779-779 c.o.code for VZ-GTE at their Princeton IL GTE/AE
GTD5 end-office and tandem, PRTNILXADS0 = PRTNILXA50T, within the
at&t/IL-Bell LATA 368 Peoria IL.

mjc