Governments in the OECS have had very limited intervention in the assignment of numbers prior to the liberalization of the telecommunications sector. The advent of competition and the desire to promote a competitive telecommunications environment require that a fair and equitable distribution system be developed for the distribution of numbers. This necessitates the development of national numbering plans and in keeping with the approach of developing a single telecommunications space there is need for a Regional Plan.

The Telecommunications Act 31 of 2000 makes provision for the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to establish and manage a national plan for the allocation of numbers among telecommunications providers


Why a Numbering Plan?

The incumbent operator previously did the administration of numbers. It is however a normal consequence of the liberalization process that this would be done by an independent regulator. In a liberalized environment the numbering plan should be administered in order to allow a fair and equitable competition among the different operators. Management of the numbering system is now done by the NTRC’s in consultation with ECTEL.

The Numbering Plan for ECTEL must reflect the competitive telecommunication market for the country. Hence a competition-driven Numbering Policy is being developed and will be modified to accommodate new functions such as number portability, ENUM, non-geographic codes and carrier selection. Click here to download the Regional Numbering Plan.