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NPA Relief Planning

NANPA performs NPA relief planning in the United States and its territories. The industry has developed guidelines that serve as a basis for the relief planning process, which includes:

  • Estimating when Central Office (CO) codes or prefixes in each area code will be depleted,
  • Convening the industry to review relief options and reach consensus on a relief plan,
  • Submitting the relief plan to the regulatory authority for approval,
  • Publishing a planning letter describing the approved relief plan, and
  • Assisting the industry to begin the implementation process.

NANPA collects CO code utilization, and forecasted demand data to determine the projected need for numbering resources. This data is used to project the exhaust date of each NPA (area code). NANPA publishes the semi-annual Numbering Resource Utilization/Forecast (NRUF) and NPA Exhaust Analysis in April and October.

When demand for CO codes exceeds forecasted projections and there is insufficient time to implement a relief plan before exhaust, NANPA may declare jeopardy to ration CO codes until relief can be implemented.

NPA relief generally involves the introduction of one or more new area codes. NANPA publishes a planning letter which is a summary of the plan and implementation schedule approved by the regulatory authorities. Press releases approved by the regulatory authorities and the industry are available on the NANPA website announcing dialing plan changes and the introduction of new area codes.

A list of area code relief planning reports is available on the NANPA website. The NPA Relief Planning Activities Status Report is updated monthly and provides information on the progress of NPA relief activities such as the NPA, jurisdiction, current exhaust date, and status of the relief filing.

Certain relief planning activities may be keyed to the occurrence of future events. During the NPA relief planning process, a state regulator or the industry may specify further action that NANPA is required to undertake based on a related event or trigger point expected to occur sometime in the future. The NPA Relief Planning Triggers Report lists these events and associated activities and shows the NPA, Location, Description of Action and Trigger Point, and the Status for each action item.

Industry members and regulators can access meeting minutes and other detailed relief planning documents through the NANP Administration System (NAS). NANPA has also developed a list of frequently asked questions concerning the area code relief process to assist the industry and general public.