News media Information 202 / 418-0500 TTY 202 / 418-2555 Fax-On-Demand 202 / 418-2830 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov ftp.fcc.gov Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D. C. 20554 This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974). FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: August 1, 2002 Mike Balmoris at (202) 418-0253 Email: mbalmori@fcc.gov FCC RELEASES TELEPHONE NUMBERING RESOURCE UTILIZATION REPORT Numbering Resource Utilization at 39.7% Washington, D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today released its fourth report on telephone number utilization in the United States. Telephone number utilization refers to how well telephone numbers are being used by carriers. The report presents numbering resource utilization statistics based on December 31, 2001 data that carriers submitted to the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), as well as other information submitted by the NANPA. The number utilization reports comprehensively examine telephone number utilization in the United States since the development of local competition. Summary Data 1. Utilization Statistics by Carrier – Reporting carriers have over 1.2 billion telephone numbers, of which 480 million were assigned to customers, more than 620 million were available to be assigned, and about 110 million were used for other purposes, such as for administrative use. New York has the two area codes with the highest utilization rates: area code 212 at 78.5% and area code 718 at 65.4%. Following is utilization statistics by carrier type: * The overall utilization rate for Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) is 52.5%. * The overall utilization rate for Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) is 11.4%. * The overall utilization rate for Cellular/PCS carriers is 47.2%. * The overall utilization rate for Paging carriers is 20.2%. -- more -- 2. Telephone Numbers Returned – Carriers are returning large quantities of telephone numbers that they do not need to the North American Numbering Plan Administrator so that those numbers can be assigned to other carriers with more immediate needs. Each area code has up to 7.9 million usable telephone numbers, so in the first three quarters of 2001, carriers returned the equivalent of more than five area codes to the NANPA. No significant quantities of telephone numbers had been voluntarily returned to the NANPA before the second quarter of 1999. * In the third quarter of 2001, carriers returned 16 million telephone numbers to the NANPA. * In the fourth quarter of 2001, carriers returned 14 million telephone numbers to the NANPA. * In the first quarter of 2002, carriers returned 12 million telephone numbers to the NANPA. 3. Number pooling – Where standard-sized blocks of 10,000 telephone numbers are divided into blocks of 1,000 numbers (thousands-blocks) so they can be used by several different carriers: * As of January 1, 2002, 21 states had assigned pooled thousands-blocks to carriers in need of numbers. * Over 100,000 thousands-blocks were reassigned through pooling. As each “block” contains 1,000 individual telephone numbers, this made over 100 million telephone numbers available to carriers in need of numbering resources. This report is updated twice a year and is available in the FCC's Reference Information Center, Courtyard Level, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20554. Contact the Commission’s duplicating contractor Qualex International at (202) 863-2893 to purchase a copy. This and many other reports can be downloaded from the FCC-State Link Internet site at www.fcc.gov/wcb/stats. -FCC- Wireline Competition Bureau contact: Craig Stroup at (202) 418-0989; TTY (202) 418-0484.