The TFNRegistry™ is a database that contains all Toll-Free Numbers (TFNs) in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). The TFNRegistry is the source of TFN availability and reservation status information. New records and changes to existing records are loaded into the TFNRegistry by individual Responsible Organizations (Resp Orgs). Records are records in the TFNRegistry which contain TFN routing information. The TFNRegistry downloads the appropriate information from each record to the Service Control Points (SCPs), which directs Toll-Free traffic by providing routing information, carrier identification, and other relevant information for the completion of a Toll-Free call.
The TFNRegistry has three environments: Production, Sandbox and Disaster Recovery (DR):
- The Production Environment (also known as the Production TFNRegistry) contains the live data for the TFNs and is sent to the SCPs.
- The Sandbox Environment (also known as the Sandbox TFNRegistry) is a test environment which is made available to Resp Orgs. This environment allows them to complete any testing for their TFN(s). Information is transmitted directly to the environment the Resp Org user is logged into. The data is accepted and processed in that environment.
- The Disaster Recovery Environment (also known as the DR TFNRegistry) is made available in the case of a system failure in the Production Environment. A system failure will have no effect on existing and established Toll-Free service, since all current information is already stored in the SCPs. However, if the TFNRegistry is not operating and available, Resp Orgs would not be able to modify or create new records, and record modifications already in the TFNRegistry but not yet transferred to the SCPs may not be activated as scheduled. If a system failure occurs at the Production TFNRegistry, then all processing will be transferred to the DR TFNRegistry. This transfer allows Resp Orgs to continue to process TFN requests and send them to the SCPs.
The TFNRegistry is updated frequently during scheduled downtimes. For more information, please visit the TFNRegistry Release Notes.