WASHINGTON-There are currently more telephone numbers available for assignment to end-users than currently assigned, said the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday.
There are 480 million assigned telephone numbers while 625 million telephone numbers are awaiting to be assigned, said the FCC.
The FCC reported its findings for the end of 2001 on the same day carriers are expected to report their bi-annual utilization rates.
The telecommunications industry began to worry during the go-go days of the late 1990s that the North American Numbering Plan would run out of numbers. This crisis appears to have been averted.
The report showed the mobile phone industry had a year-end 2001 utilization rate of 47.2 percent. Paging carriers were listed at 20.2 percent.
