FAQ - Product

Q: What is NNPC?
A: NNPC (National Numbering Plans Collection) is a database containing the relevant information on the telephone numbering data of the countries all over the world.
NNPC focus is to distinguish between fixed and mobile numbers providing, for mobile numbers only, rich information on the owning operator and network.
Q: Which systems usually benefit from NNPC?
A: Interconnection, Rating and Billing obtain the maximum benefit from NNPC.
Q: Why should we consider NNPC for our systems?
A: Our customers consider NNPC useful to apply the proper rating to their calls and to reduce time and resources spent on reconciliation and disputes. Due to a correct and complete description of call destinations, NNPC grants billing accuracy and significant savings.
Q: Which level of description does NNPC reach?
A: NNPC contains all the Country Codes (CC), Area Codes (AC) and National Destination Codes (NDC) of Fixed, Mobile and Supplementary Services telephone numbers, enriched by detailed additional information.
NNPC reports Operator and Network data for mobile, fixed/mobile, paging and paging/mobile number ranges; only fixed and special number ranges are excluded.
Q: How many countries does NNPC include?
A: NNPC includes the 250 countries, special services and international networks listed in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) document “List of ITU-T Recommendation E.164 assigned country codes”.
Q: How many records are there in NNPC?
A: Currently NNPC contains more than 400,000 records.
Please note that we don’t put a lot of emphasis on this number because we think that more records not always mean more accuracy and quality.
We are focused to have a well-organized and simplified database despite to the number of records inside, studying every national numbering plan in order to represent it with less records than possible.
Q: How are countries identified in NNPC?
A: In NNPC a given country is identified by its ITU numeric Country Code (CC) or by its International Organization for Standardization (ISO) three-letter (alpha-3) or two-letter (alpha-3) code of the “ISO 3166 International Standard for country codes”.
Q: Does NNPC include the details of USA and Canada numbering plans?
A: Like any other country in NNPC, USA and Canada are fully covered in fixed and mobile parts of their numbering plans.
Q: Is number portability included?
A: Number Portability is not supported.
Q: Does NNPC provide data on a single number?
A: NNPC scope is to provide a full set of integrated information for a given range of numbers and not for any single number in a range.
We cannot provide information on single subscriber numbers and we do not manage Fixed Number Portability (FNP) and Mobile Number Portability (MNP).
Q: Are you sure the country X contains only Y codes?
A: Yes, we are sure because we do not supply the link Network-Operator for fixed numbers and, when it is possible, we optimize all numbers using a “best matching  criteria” (e.g. a full range of numbers from 10 to 19, having the same nature – fixed or mobile – and belonging to the same network/operator, is reported like 1) which let us dramatically reduce the total number of rows while continuing to guarantee the full coverage of any national numbering plan.
It should be easy for us to dramatically increase the number of records despite the quality, the deep analysis and synthesis of each national numbering plan. Our choice is to represent every country with no frills and data duplication.
Q: How do you get Numbering Plans from countries?
A: We have a vast and thorough network of contacts and sources which enables us to follow up and verify data from each country.
Q: Do you update NNPC according to the ITU and GSMA changes?
A: ITU and GSMA are only two of the starting points from where we begin to collect, analyze, detail and build our information. We have an international network of professional contacts and internet sources that support us in this activity.
Q: How can you be certain that the data inserted in NNPC are correct?
A: We check and keep regular track of our sources.
Q: Does NNPC provide right information?
A: NNPC is always developed in a best effort way.
Its details are normally right at the Last Update Date specified for each Country but, since things are changing day by day, they can also be wrong sometimes.
Q: May I buy only a part of NNPC, e.g. only mobile data?
A: NNPC is always provided as a single file, but you can easily filter the data you need.
Q: May I embed NNPC in an App or in another kind of software?
A: Yes, you can, but a multilicense agreement with BSMILANO SAS has to be defined.
Q: May I publish NNPC data on the web in a customer area?
A: Yes, you can, but a multilicense agreement with BSMILANO SAS has to be defined.
Q: May I define a web service based on NNPC?
A: Yes, you can, but a multilicense agreement with BSMILANO SAS has to be defined.
Q: Is NNPC reachable via API?
A: No, NNPC is not reachable via API.
Q: Do you have an online web tool to test commercial NNPC database with some examples?
A: Yes. You can use the NNPC Query Tool available at https://numplans.com/nnpc-test/.
Q: How is NNPC provided?
A: NNPC is provided like a zipped file named NNPC.zip, containing the database file NNPC.csv and the field description file NNPC_FieldsDescription.pdf.
Q: Which is the format of the NNPC.csv file?
A: The NNPC.csv file is an ASCII text file created with the Code Page “1252 (ANSI – Latin I)”.
It uses the character “Vertical Bar” (|) as Column Delimiter, the characters “Carriage Return” and “Line Feed” as Row Delimiter and the character “Double Quote” as Text Qualifier.
The first row contains the column names.
Q: Where can I find the description of the NNPC fields?
A: The description of the NNPC fields is available in a PDF file included in the ZIP file of the full or demo NNPC database.
Q: How should I read NNPC.csv?
A: Please open NNPC.csv using Microsoft Excel, then select the first column where you find the data, select  the data tab and press the “Text to Columns” button. Then you can easily follow the wizard.
Q: I opened NNPC.csv but many data are missing. What is wrong with it?
A: This kind of problems are almost always due to the csv import rules in Microsoft Excel.
Please rename the file extension NNPC.csv to NNPC.txt and import the data again.
Q: How often is NNPC updated?
A: NNPC is updated every month.
Q: How I know that NNPC has been updated?
A: Each month we send you an email containing the list of the updated countries.
Q: In case of changes do we need to download the entire database?
A: Yes, the entire database has to be downloaded, but you can easily select the updates by using a query filter on the “ROW_INSERTION_DATE” column.
Q: How do you specify the update of an existing database entry?
A: If we update an existing database entry, we change the date value in the field “ROW_INSERTION_DATE”.
Q: How do you specify the deletion of an existing database entry?
A: If we delete an existing database entry, we change the date in the field “ROW_INSERTION_DATE” of the previous and the following rows. Sometimes we also change the “ROW_INSERTION_DATE” of more related rows to better highlight the deletion effects.
Q: Why some destinations have no NDC?
A: Some destinations can have no NDC because (1) we have no information on its real use as a component of the National Number or (2) the National Numbering Plan does not use such component in the National Number or (3) it is implicitly included in the SN2 field as its first digit(s).
Q: We noticed that many fields are not populated in the demo database. Is this the case for commercial product also?
A: The NNPC demo database is a real representation of the commercial product, so not populated fields can exist because not logically requested or – in the worst case – they are not known.
Q: We noticed that MCC+MNC, TADIG codes and other fields are not present in the demo database for all entries. Is this the case for the commercial product?
A: The NNPC demo database is a real representation of the commercial product, so MCC+MNC are not present when they are not assigned to a network (e.g. paging networks and some MVNOs), TADIG codes are not present when they are not used by a network (e.g. CDMA networks), not populated fields can exist because not logically requested or – in the worst case – they are not known.
Q: Can you supply the city names in Unicode format with all the special characters intact?
A: Unfortunately we cannot provide the Unicode format of the city names, since it was a founding choice not to include special characters in NNPC fields.
Q: Has NNPC the relation between the Network Operator prefixes and the relevant TADIG Network Codes or the MNC, MCC codes?
A: NNPC provides all MNC, MNC and TADIG_NC values in the related fields and specifies any additional information in the NET_NOTES field.
Q: I can see that some details are not ready to be used as is, like TADIG network codes with corresponding ISO codes only available as commentary (NORMC for example).
A: This is because some details must be evaluated. For example the NET_NOTES “TADIG Network Code MC is used with the Norway ISO Code NOR.” had to be used because the Norwegian “MCP” network is classified by ITU (our primary reference) as an “International Networks, shared code” network not a “Norway” one and we had to use the NNPC conventional ISO 3166 Alpha 3 Code “916”.
Q: Why do some codes have the “X” character?
A: The “X” is a place holder standing for any digit in the range 0-9 and is used whenever necessary. For example it is used to specify the right length of National Destination Code (NDC) and Subscriber Number (SN) fields of the Belgian NDCs from 461 to 469: NDC “46X” let us properly specify that the NDC field is long 3 digits and the SN field is long SNL “6” digits.
Q: For Macedonia, Home Network Special Services, SNL=”3, X” What does this X stand for? Do you mean that max SN length is unknown?
A: The maximum SNL for Home Network Special Services is unknown because, as specified in the PREFIX_NOTES field, “The maximum Subscriber Number Length X is decided by the Network Operator.”.
Q: How do you use the SNL information? Do you provide a Minimum and Maximum Length of National Number?
A: SNL field contains the Subscriber Number Length.
It can be (1) a fixed single value like “6”, when one cannot have any other number of digits, or (2) a double value like “4, 6”, when one can have numbers with a minimum and a maximum number of digits.
NNPC provides the SNL only. Minimum and maximum length of a complete number can be easily calculated by adding SNL to the length of previous used numbers (CC, NDC1, NDC2, SN1, SN2) for the single call scenario.
Q: Why is there no MNC listed for some virtual operators?
A: Because some virtual operators have not been assigned an own MNC, i.e. they uses the host network MNC.
Q. We would like to know whether each code is reachable from abroad or is for local use only within each country. Is there any perspective to have such kind of prefix notes for all countries?
A: Such kind of information, when available, are already listed in the PREFIX_NOTES field (e.g. “Local use only.” for some New Zealand numbers or the more used “Not available from abroad.”).
We are always working in order to improve the quality of our data. You don’t find these information only if we have no source availability.