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Telecom Decision CRTC 2019-16

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Ottawa, 21 January 2019

Public record: 8621-C12-01/08

CISC Canadian Steering Committee on Numbering – Consensus report CNRE123A regarding the sunset of the Canadian Adjunct to the INC International Inbound NPA (INT/NPA/NXX) Assignment Guidelines

Background

  1. Central office codes (NXX) from Numbering Plan Area code 456 (NPA 456) were made available by the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) Administrator in 1993 to enable the routing of inbound international calls for carrier-specific services, particular to a service provider’s network, to and between countries served by the NANP. This was accomplished by providing carrier identification within the dialed digits of the telephone number: the three digits following 456 (456-NXX) identified the carrier.
  2. The Canadian Numbering Administrator (CNA) assigns 456-NXX codes to Canadian telecommunications carriersunder the Canadian Adjunct to the INC International Inbound NPA (INT/NPA/NXX) Assignment Guidelines (the Guidelines).
  3. In 2017, the Industry Numbering Committee (INC) of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions investigated the use of this resource in its networks and determined that there was no longer a need for NPA 456. The INC agreed to sunset the International Inbound NPA (INT/NPA/NXX) Assignment Guidelines (ATIS-0300049) and age NPA 456 for five years before it is returned to the general purpose code pool.
  4. On 27 November 2017, the NANP Administrator advised the telecommunications industry that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had approved NANP Administrator Change Order 8, as a result of the INC consensus recommending the sunset of the International Inbound NPA (INT/NPA/NXX) Assignment Guidelines. With FCC approval of this change order, the Guidelines are currently referencing the NPA 456 numbering resource that is no longer in effect for international inbound use.

Report

  1. On 27 September 2018, the Canadian Steering Committee on Numbering (CSCN) of the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC) submitted the following consensus report for Commission approval:
    • Sunset the Canadian Adjunct to the INC International Inbound (INT/NPA/NXX) Assignment Guidelines (CNRE123A)
  2. The consensus report, dated 29 June 2018, can be found in the “Reports” section of the CSCN page, which is available in the CISC section of the Commission’s website at www.crtc.gc.ca.
  3. In the report, the CSCN proposed to sunset the Guidelines and replace them with the Canadian Adjunct to the INC International Inbound NPA (INT/NPA/NXX) Reference Document (the Reference Document) developed by the CSCN.
  4. The CSCN stated that, absent this change, the Guidelines would be referencing a resource that can no longer be assigned for this purpose. The proposed Reference Document, which provides a historical account of the establishment and sunset of this resource, would replace the Guidelines.
  5. The CSCN requested that the Commission approve the report and the attached Reference Document.

Commission’s analysis and determinations

  1. The Commission is of the view that the small number of assignments of the NPA 456 numbering resource since 1999 demonstrates the limited utility of the resource.
  2. Since the NPA 456 numbering resource has been sunset for the United States and Caribbean countries, the Commission considers it appropriate to sunset the NPA 456 numbering resource in Canada consistent with the rest of the countries served by the NANP.
  3. Accordingly, the Commission approves the CSCN’s consensus report and the proposed Reference Document.

Secretary General

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