North American Numbering Council

NANC stands for North American Numbering Council. NANC is a Federal Advisory Committee that focuses on efficiently managing the numbering issues of the North American countries including Canada and the Caribbean Islands. NANC represents telecommunications companies and telecommunication service regulators, as well as providers of cable, IP services and the associations of internet industries, sellers and consumers of internet related services.

Background

The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was in need of an association or committee to help with numbering issues by providing adequately researched recommendations. To satisfy these needs, the FCC filed a charter with congress to establish a Federal Advisory Committee under the name of NANC on 5th October, 1995. NANC organized its first meeting on October 1, 1996. The first duty assigned to NANC was to select an appropriate, unbiased administrator for the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) and Local Number Portability (LNP). After a great competitive bidding, NANC selected Lockheed Martin’s Communications Industry Services, currently known as NeuStar Inc., to serve in this capacity.

Assignments performed by NANC

The North American Numbering Council effectively provided the FCC with many important recommendations related to different matters regarding numbering. The recommendations made by NANC solved numerous problems with various issues, such as wired/wireless integration for Local Number Portability, abbreviated dialing arrangements, the neutrality of toll free database administration, and the usability of local number portability for 500/900 numbers. NANC also made recommendations regarding the different ways for using the numbering resources adequately and appropriately. NANC holds monthly meetings for its members to address and discuss various issues and policies. The proceedings of these monthly meetings are available for public view on their official websites in the form of meeting minutes.

NANC Organization

Chair: Chair is the head of the NANC. The Chair has the authority to hold the meetings after providing notification to its members. The Chair initiates discussions and guides the proceedings of the meetings to be performed as per the guidelines of the Council. The Chair is a regulating body and acts as a supervisor for different operations of the members.

Members of NANC: NANC members are the representatives from Local Exchange Carriers (LECs), interexchange carriers, wireless providers and manufacturers of telecommunication technology and services. The representatives from the state regulators and consumer council groups of the telecommunication sector are also the North American Number Council members. The main objective of the members is to attend all meetings conducted by NANC and sincerely recommend their opinions on various issues that are discussed in the meetings. Their recommendations should be relevant and considerate of the public interest. The members also need to communicate with the group they represent about the proceedings and advancements of NANC regarding various policies.

Steering Group: The FCC creates the Steering Group, which considers and analyzes various NANC processes and acts to improve NANC productiveness. The Steering Group needs to be up to date with all the relevant information regarding the progress of processes of the Working Groups and Issue Management Groups.

Working Groups: These groups are formed by any of the interested parties as per their interests. These groups take directions from NANC and work on various assignments for NANC and deliver them as per the due dates set by NANC. Working Groups create draft recommendations for NANC consideration, which NANC can accept, reject, or ask for changes by giving additional directions.

Issue Management Groups (IMGs): Issue Management Groups are formed by NANC to complete special tasks that cannot be appropriately assigned to an existing Working Group. The IMGs also provide recommendations to NANC. The function of an IMG is similar to a Working Group, i.e. to develop draft recommendations for NANC consideration and make the changes as per the requirement of the NANC directions.