The Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) is a function of the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency
A regulatory agency or regulatory authority, is a Public benefit corporation
Public-benefit corporation is a term that has different meanings in different jurisdictions. In ...
(FCC) in the United States. It administers the routing of
telephone call
A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network
A telephone network is a telecommunications network that connects Telephone
A telephone is a telecommunications Appliance (disambiguation), device that permits two or more users ...
s and
text messages
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile device
A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer
...
(SMS) for the
telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire
A wire is a single usually cylindrical
A cylinder (from Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece
Gr ...
s industry and its customers. As such, it facilitates
local number portability
Local number portability (LNP) for fixed lines, and full mobile number portability (FMNP) for mobile phone lines, refers to the ability of a "customer of record" of an existing fixed-line or mobile telephone number
A telephone number is a seq ...
in the United States and Canada.
History
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 ((b)(2)) established that all local exchange carriers must implement
local number portability
Local number portability (LNP) for fixed lines, and full mobile number portability (FMNP) for mobile phone lines, refers to the ability of a "customer of record" of an existing fixed-line or mobile telephone number
A telephone number is a seq ...
(LNP) in accordance with the regulations of the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency
A regulatory agency or regulatory authority, is a Public benefit corporation
Public-benefit corporation is a term that has different meanings in different jurisdictions. In ...
(FCC). Subsequently, the FCC selected Lockheed Martin as the LNP administrator.
The Number Portability Administration Center was originally implemented by the Communications Industry Services (CIS) division of Lockheed Martin in 1997. In 1998, Lockheed Martin formed a separate company, Neustar, for the management of the NPAC. At the time the work constituted the first database and registry to enable local number portability for the United States and Canada.
The database contains the data used to route, rate, and bill telephone calls for telephone numbers that are no longer assigned to the original carrier.
On March 26, 2015, the FCC approved the recommendation of the North American Numbering Council (NANC) to award the contract to Telcordia Technologies, doing business as iconectiv, as the next Local Number Portability Administrator (LNPA), after 18 years of management by Neustar.
The reasons for the change were cited as cost savings.
With commission oversight, North American Portability Management, LLC (NAPM) negotiated the terms of a Master service agreement (MSA) with iconectiv.
[ The MSA was submitted to the FCC for review and approval in March 2016.]
See also
*North American Numbering Plan
References
{{reflist
External links
Number Portability Administration Center
North American Numbering Plan, *
Telephone numbers