Toll-Free Numbers (TFNs) follow the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) 10-digit format (NPA-NXX-XXXX) used for all telephone numbers in North America. A Toll-Free NPA designated by the FCC, such as 800 or 888, identifies a number as a TFN. The TFNRegistry™ maintains status and associated information for the complete pool of TFNs.
A status is associated with each TFN that changes based on user actions to search for and reserve numbers and to provision and delete Customer Records (CADs) (also known as CRs) or Pointer Records (PADs) (also known as PRs) for TFNs. Other status changes are made automatically by the TFNRegistry based on rules specified by the TFNRegistry™ Functions Tariff.
The Number Administration (NA) statuses that are maintained in the TFNRegistry are:
- SPARE: Number is available to be reserved. No Responsible Organization (Resp Org) Entity has control of the number.
- RESERVED: Resp Org Entity has taken control of the number, but a CR/PR has not yet been provisioned.
- ASSIGNED: CR/PR has been provisioned in the TFNRegistry, but has not been sent to Service Control Points (SCPs).
- WORKING: CR/PR has been sent to SCPs and accepted by at least one SCP.
- DISCONNECT: Toll-Free service has ended and intercept treatment, such as an announcement, is provided; a CR/PR is needed to specify routing for intercept treatment.
- TRANSITIONAL: Toll-Free service and intercept service, if provided, have ended; there is no longer routing information in SCPs for the TFN and therefore no active CR/PR reflecting current information in an SCP associated with the TFN.
- UNAVAILABLE: TFN cannot be reserved by a Resp Org.
- SUSPEND: TFN has been disconnected but has a CR/PR to restore service, or TFN is the subject of a billing dispute.
For all the statuses except for SPARE and UNAVAILABLE, a Resp Org Entity is associated with the TFN. This association begins when the Resp Org Entity takes control of the number by completing a reservation.
Please Note: That process currently used for a billing dispute is to change the status of the number to UNAVAILABLE and change the Resp Org Entity to a Resp Org Entity that represents the Help Desk. The SUSPEND status is not used for billing disputes in the current TFNRegistry.
A representative flow showing common NA status transitions for activation of Toll-Free service, starting with a number in SPARE status. Transitions that are not part of the typical flow are not illustrated in the figure, including transition from WORKING to ASSIGNED and ASSIGNED to RESERVED, as well as transitions to and from UNAVAILABLE status. A full description of all possible number status transitions is provided.
In addition to maintaining number status, the NA function includes capabilities for users to search for and reserve numbers and view and update information related to numbers in RESERVED status. Administrative capabilities are required to establish the pool of TFNs and configure parameters that control the operation of the NA function.