From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: 950-0666 Becomes, Well, 950
Date: 19 Nov 92 16:10:49 GMT
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 862, Message 1 of 8

Here at MasterCard, we received the following piece of
incomprehensible bureaucratese from the office of Bellcore's Wendy K.
Messer, NANPA Administration, LCC 1B231, 290 West Mt. Pleasant Ave.,
Livingston, NJ 07039.  I'm forwarding it both because the content may
be of interest and as an example of Bellcore's dealings with
end-users.  (Any typos or misspellings are almost certainly mine.)
 
For those of you who really are interested in the content, I've
affixed an attempt at a translation at the end.  As you read this,
remember that this memo as addressed to our Director of Operations
Administration, a management, not engineering, position.
 
 - - - - - - - - - -
 
North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) is responsible
for the assignment of Carrier Identification Codes (CICs) to entities
(interexchange carriers and end users).  NANPA maintains records of
the assignments and issues reports to the FCC and industry as
required.  Our records show that one or more CIC(s) have been assigned
to your company.
 
NANPA is contacting you via this certified letter in connection with
the industry project to expand CICs from three to four digits, which
is outlined in the Industry Carrier Compatibility Forum (ICCF) CIC
Administrative Guidelines.  The first phase affects FG B and is
scheduled for 1Q93.  At that time, two things will occur First, CICs
will be split into two separate pools, one for Feature Group B (FG B)
and one for Feature Group D (FG D).  After this split occurs, any
entity wishing to purchase both FG B and FG D access will have to
request separate FG B and FG D CICs, and there is no guarantee that
the CICs assigned for FG B and FG D service will be the same.  Second
those existing three-digit CICs which are designated as FG B CICs,
i.e. CICs which are used in the carrier access code 950-WXXX (where
the assignee has selected the W digit as 0 or 1), will be expanded to
four digits by prefixing the three digit CIC with the selected W
digit.  New CICs will be assigned as 4 digits.  FG D CICs will remain
at three digits until FG D expansion, which is currently scheduled for
1995.  At that time, they will be expanded by prefixing a 0 to the
three-digit FG D CIC.  Existing CIC assignments will be designated as
FG B or FG D based on type of access as of 1Q93.
 
Thus, FG B CICs will be expanded as follows: CIC XXX with W = 0
(950-0XXX) will become FG B CIC 0XXX.  Likewise, CIC XXX with W = 1
(950-1XXX) will become FG B CIC 1XXX.  If the CIC is currently in use
for FG D, the entity will retain the assignment of the three-digit CIC
for FG D.  Usage will be determined from the quarterly usage reports
submitted to NANPA by the local exchange carriers.  If the CIC is not
currently used for FG D, the CIC will be made available to another
entity for FG D.
 
The attached sheet lists the CIC assignment(s) on record for your
company, as well as the type of use, i.e. FG B and/or FG D.  It also
lists your assignment(s) as they will look after FG B expansion
occurs.  Please check the information for accuracy, make any changes
necessary, sign it, and return it to NANPA at the address indicated.
If the information is correct, please sign the sheet and return it to
NANPA also.  If you believe the information is incorrect, please
explain why.  Your reply must also be returned by the date indicated
or else we will proceed with the information as listed.  You are also
responsible for notifying NANPA if there are any subsequent changes to
the information.
 
New CIC assignment guidelines have been developed by the industry
through the ICCF.  These guidelines, which cover the transition from
three-to four-digit CICs and assignment procedures for four-digit
CICs, seek maximum industry cooperation in this important effort, and
we ask that you help us accordingly.  Copies are available on request.
 
If you have any questions, please call Jim Deak on 201-xxx-xxxx or me
on 201-xxx-xxxx.
 
Thank you,
(s) Wendy Messer
 
 - - - - - - - - - -
 
Did you make it through that?
 
TRANSLATION: Right now if a company owns both a 950-0nnn (or 950-1nnn)
code AND a 10-nnn-0 code, the "nnn" is the same.  Bellcore is breaking
this so that they have more slack in the 950-nnnn pseudo-exchange ...
and while they're at it, they're expanding the 0/1 after the 950 to
any digit, so they can assign numbers like 950-7448 or 950-3825.
 
So if you're at a company called (for example) Hellcore, and you own
"FG B" number 950-0666, but you're not a long-distance carrier with
the 10-666-0 prefix, then after early next year if somebody wants to
start a long-distance carrier, say, "Ma Hell," and use 10-666-0 as
their access number, then they can.  If this confuses telecom-literate
customers who are used to relating the 950-0nnn and 10-nnn-0 codes, so
be it.  Oh yeah, and some time in the 1995 (for example) Ma Hell's
10-666-0 will probably become 10-0666-0, too.
 
As our in-house telephone guru put it when the memo finally got to
him: "Why didn't they just =say= that?"
 

J. Brad Hicks   Internet: mhs!mc!Brad_Hicks@attmail.com
X.400:    c=US admd=ATTMAIL prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad
I am not an official MasterCard spokesperson, and the message above does
not contain official MasterCard statements or policies.