About NANPA

About The North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA)

NANPA holds overall responsibility for the neutral administration of NANP numbering resources, subject to directives from regulatory authorities in the countries that share the NANP. NANPA's responsibilities include assignment of NANP resources, and, in the U.S. and its territories, coordination of area code relief planning and collection of utilization and forecast data.

NANPA is not a policy-making entity. In making assignment decisions, NANPA follows regulatory directives and industry-developed guidelines. NANPA's responsibilities are defined in Federal Communication Commission (FCC) rules and in comprehensive technical requirements drafted by the telecommunications industry and approved by the FCC.

Regulatory authorities in various NANP countries have named national administrators to oversee the numbering resources assigned by NANPA for use within their country. NANPA is the national administrator for the U.S. and its territories. COMsolve Inc. serves as the Canadian Numbering Administrator. In other participating countries, regulatory authorities either serve as the national administrator or delegate the responsibility to the dominant carrier. NANPA, in its overall coordinating role, consults with and provides assistance to regulatory authorities and national administrators to ensure that numbering resources are used in the best interests of all participants in the North American Numbering Plan.

About the North American Numbering Plan

The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is an integrated telephone numbering plan serving 20 North American countries that share its resources. These countries include the United States and its territories, Canada, Bermuda, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Sint Maarten, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks & Caicos.

Regulatory authorities in each participating country have plenary authority over numbering resources, but the participating countries share numbering resources cooperatively.

AT&T developed the North American Numbering Plan in 1947 to simplify and facilitate direct dialing of long distance calls. Implementation of the plan began in 1951.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) assigned country code "1" to the NANP area. The NANP conforms with ITU Recommendation E.164, the international standard for telephone numbering plans.

NANP numbers are ten-digit numbers consisting of a three-digit Numbering Plan Area (NPA) code, commonly called an area code, followed by a seven-digit local number. The format is usually represented as

where N is any digit from 2 through 9 and X is any digit from 0 through 9.

More information can be found under Numbering Resources.