FCC Calls NeuStar's Number.(Brief Article)

Wireless Week, July, 2001

The FCC has given a Washington, O.C., company a contract to allocate phone numbers on a nationwide basis--the first time that's ever been done. NeuStar Inc., a spinoff of the satellite firm Comsat Corp., now assigns area codes and keeps track of all phone numbers in North America. The company will use new software to assign numbers to service providers in blocks of 1,000, rather than the current process of assigning 10,000 at a time.

If the old system had continued, North America would have run out of 10-digit phone numbers by 2007.