Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Henry Troup Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Numbering Plan Changes (was Re: Is 510 Area Code Active?) Message-ID: <10917@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 14 Aug 90 13:56:15 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Henry Troup Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ltd. Lines: 35 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 572, Message 4 of 10 In article <10830@accuvax.nwu.edu> daveb@comspec.uucp (dave berman) writes: >It seems to me that the whole worldwide voice net will go down the >tubes real soon now, with features like IdentaCall and stuff all >working to help use up all those numbers so fast. Are the telephone >switching systems installed now able to handle a reprogramming, such >as adding an extra digit in front of the usual exchange? Or adding a >fourth character to the area code? There's going to be a new North American Numbering Plan. The existing plan has approximately 160 NPAs (area codes/Numbering Plan Areas) with about 640 office prefixes and 10000 lines per office. That totals to just about one billion (1,024,000,000) lines. The reason we're running out, perversely enough, is not the dense area codes, but the sparse ones. Montana, for example, with a whole NPA to itself. The new NPA will impose everywhere what is already a fact of life in dense area - no 1 + seven digit toll calls. Then the area codes can be used as office prefixes, and (the real change) all office prefixes - now 800 - can be used as area codes. So the total capacity goes to 800 x 800 x 10000 or 6.4 billion. Disclaimer: I'm sure the numbers aren't right, it's five years since I looked at this stuff. Henry Troup - BNR owns but does not share my opinions | 21 years in Canada... uunet!bnrgate!hwt%bwdlh490 HWT@BNR.CA 613-765-2337 | [Moderator's Note: Another good example is little Rhode Island. All of an area code for what? ... a couple hundred thousand phones at most? PAT]