Front Page

North America has a telephone numbering plan comprised of three digit Area Codes followed by three digit Central Office Codes and ending in a four digit Subscriber Line.

Three digit North American telephone Area Codes are known as Numbering Plan Area or NPA within the Telecommunications Industry.

The term NPK in The NPK Problem, was coined by Himy Syed in 1987. It is derived from using the NPA acronym and replacing the A for area with K for 1,000 (or 1,024 to be exact). If theoretically all 1,000 potential area codes were in use, we could run out of telephone numbers which could be newly assigned.

For example: (416) 967 - 1111

(416) is the Area Code, 967 is the Central Office Code and 1111 is the subscriber line.

Early in this century, North America will run out of three digit area codes. Many area codes today are in need of Relief and numerous Area Codes regularly show up as in Jeopardy, needing relief within months, and in some cases a few weeks.

This wiki is an open source initiative to provide as much information and knowledge sharing as possible on this inevitable numbering crisis.

• The intention is to have a page for every area code, with maps, contact information, projected relief, jeopardy, and exhaustion dates on each page.
  

• Background on the history of Telephone Numbering and how we got to this point.
  

• Proposed solutions in Numbering and alternatives to numbering in completing phone calls.
  

• A online public space for regular people to learn about this problem and how to minimize their inconveniences with numbering issues

In short: Unlike the Y2K Problem where everyone knew the exact date and time the problem would occur - December 31, 1999/January 1, 2000 - but no one knew what the exact consequences would be, The NPK Problem is the opposite.

In The NPK Problem, we do not know the exact moment when we will exhaust the use of all existing three digit area codes, but we do know exactly what some of the more measurable consequences are:

• Moving to a four or five digit area code and/or replacing every 7 digit number with an 8 or 9 digit phone number will cost everyone time and money
  

• Currently, every Area Code split costs at least $40 million simply in printing new business cards, brochures, advertising, yellow pages etc. Cost on Public
  

• Every alarm system will have to reprogrammed with new phone numbers as one example
  

• Wrong numbers being dialed by automated systems until fixed: ATMs, Safes, Vaults, Your Speed Dial directories
  

• HALF the telephone numbers in the world are in North America. Hence Hundreds of thousands of telephone switches at EVERY phone company the world over will have to be reprogrammed. Think PEAK number a la Peak Oil.

Most likely we will muddle through this problem putting out fires area code by area code and central office code by central office code. This wiki is an effort to remove the mystery for the general public as to why this problem has been created by the incumbent telephone industry, regulators, and others for their benefit while the ultimate cost will be borne by regular everyday people who simply want to use the telephone.

This wiki was founded by Himy Syed.