Press Release

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) yesterday ordered a telephone company to return approximately 20,000 inactive and unused telephone numbers as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) number conservation measures.

The FCC gave state commissions the authority to reclaim a NXX code in a given area code that has not been assigned to a customer in six months. NXX codes are the first three digits of a phone number following the area code. Each one contains approximately 10,000 phone numbers.

The PUC has ordered the return of unused and inactive 271 and 405 NXX code numbers in the 267 area code from Eagle Communications of Philadelphia.

The rapid proliferation of area codes both here and across the country is a result of telecommunications companies having to operate within an outdated telephone network structure. Currently companies can receive numbers only in blocks of 10,000 regardless of how many customers will actually receive the numbers. Once the 10,000 numbers are given to a telecommunications carrier they are unavailable for assignment to another carrier.

By reclaiming the unused telephone numbers in blocks of 10,000 numbers, the PUC is able to return the blocks to the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), who can then reassign the numbers to another carrier. The NANPA is the FCC unit responsible for distributing area codes.

For recent news releases, or more information about the PUC, visit our Internet homepage: http://puc.paonline.com.