Telecom - Staff Letter addressed to Kelly Walsh (Canadian Numbering Administrator)
Gatineau, 7 May 2025
Our reference: 1011-NOC2023-0092
BY EMAIL
Kelly Walsh
CNA Program Manager
Canadian Numbering Administrator
150 Isabella Street, Suite 605
Ottawa, ON, K1S 5H3
kelly.walsh@cnac.ca
Subject: Request blanket permission for expedited industry notification timeframes for TBP test CO Codes and Blocks
Dear Kelly T. Walsh,
This is in response to the letter you filed with the Commission on 11 April 2025.
In Telecom Regulatory Policy 2024-26, the Commission directed local exchange carriers and wireless carriers to implement thousand-block pooling (TBP) by 6 October 2025.
On 18 December 2024, Commission staff issued a letter supporting the Canadian Numbering Administrator’s (CNA) allocation of temporary numbering resources to enable end-to-end production testing prior to the implementation of TBP, subject to certain conditions.
In your letter, you requested that Commission staff provide blanket approval for expedited industry notification timeframes for the assignment of all test central office (CO) codes and thousands-blocks used for production testing of the Thousands Block Pooling (TBP) processes. These notifications would occur in an expedited manner, rather than 66 days after the received date of a completed Part 1 Form, as specified in the Canadian Central Office Code (NXX) Assignment Guideline (the Guideline).
Staff’s blanket approval of expedited notification timeframes would minimise the delay between resource assignment and effective dates in the Business Integrated Routing and Routing Database System (BIRRDS) during the testing period beginning on 1 April 2025. Typically, carriers must request shorter timeframes on a per-resource basis (45 days for CO Codes and 30 days for blocks). However, for these test resources, which are solely for production testing and not for subscriber use, the CNA proposes negotiated timeframes of 8-10 calendar days, dependant upon the applicant's readiness.
In line with its support of the CNA’s allocation of temporary numbering resources for TBP production testing, Commission staff considers CNA’s pre-emptive request for blanket approval of expedited notification timeframes of CO codes and thousands-blocks specifically related to production testing for TBP to be justified.
Since this approval is related specifically to thousands-blocks necessary for production testing, there is no requirement for carriers not involved in this testing to implement these thousand-blocks in their networks. All parties involved in the production testing understand it will be completed on a best-efforts basis.
Sincerely,
Original signed by Étienne Robelin for
Suneil Kanjeekal
Director, Dispute Resolution & Regulatory Implementation
Telecommunications Sector
c.c.: Alex Pittman, CRTC, alexander.pittman@crtc.gc.ca
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