Local access and transport area (LATA) is a term used in U.S. telecommunications regulation. It represents a geographical area of the United States under the terms of the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ) entered by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Civil Action number 82-0192 or any other geographic area designated as a LATA in the National Exchange Carrier Association, Inc. Tariff FCC No. 4. that precipitated the breakup of the original AT&T into the "Baby Bells" or created since that time for wireline regulation.
Generally, a LATA represents an area within which a divested Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) is permitted to offer exchange telecommunications and exchange access services. Under the terms of the MFJ, the RBOCs are generally prohibited from providing services that originate in one LATA and terminate in another.
LATA boundaries tend to be drawn around markets, and not necessarily along existing state or area code borders. Some LATAs cross over state boundaries, such as those for the New York metropolitan area and Greenwich, Connecticut; Chicago, Illinois; Portland, Oregon; and areas between Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Area codes and LATAs do not necessarily share boundaries; many LATAs exist in multiple area codes, and many area codes exist in multiple LATAs.
Originally, the LATAs were grouped into regions within which one particular RBOC was allowed to provide services. The LATAs in each of these regions are numbered beginning with the same digit. Generally the LATAs were associated with carriers or other indications in the following manner:
In addition to this list, two local carriers were made independent: Cincinnati Bell in the Cincinnati area, and SNET (a former unit of AT&T, sold to Frontier) in Connecticut. These were assigned LATAs in the 9xx range.
Since the breakup of the original AT&T in 1984, however, some amount of deregulation, as well as a number of phone company mergers, have blurred the significance of these regions. A number of new LATAs have been formed within these regions since their inception, most beginning with the digit 9.
LATAs contribute to an often confusing aspect of long distance telephone service. Due to the various and overlapping regulatory limitations and inter-business arrangements, phone companies typically provide differing types of “long distance” service, each with potentially different rates:
within same LATA, within same state
within same LATA, between different states
between different LATAs, within same state
between different LATAs, between different states
Given the complexity of the legal and financial issues involved in each distinction, many long distance companies tend to not explain the details of these different rates, which can lead to billing questions from surprised customers.
Local carriers have various alternative terms for LATAs such as “Service Area” by Pacific Bell in California, or “Regional Calling Area” by Verizon in Maryland.
In order to facilitate the sharing of Telcordia telephone routing databases between countries, LATAs were later defined for the provinces of Canada, the other countries and territories of the North American Numbering Plan, and Mexico. Aside from U.S. territories, LATAs have no regulatory purpose in these areas. In 2000, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission eliminated all Canadian provincial LATAs in favor of a single LATA for Canada (888).
No LATAs exist with a second digit of 0 or 1, which distinguished them from traditional area codes.
The city or place name given with some LATAs is the name given to identify the LATA, not the limit of its boundary. Generally this is the most significant metropolitan area in the LATA. In some cases a LATA is named after the largest phone exchange in the LATA that was historically served by an RBOC. For example, the largest city in the Pahrump LATA in Nevada is Las Vegas. Since Las Vegas was not historically served by an RBOC, the LATA is named after the smaller town of Pahrump, which was historically served by Nevada Bell (now AT&T Inc.). Also, listing under a state does not necessarily limit the LATA's territory to that state; there may be overlaps as well as enclaves. Areas that include notable portions of other states are explained, but not all LATA state overlaps may be detailed.
LATA boundaries are not always solidly defined. Inter-carrier agreements, change proposals to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and new wiring developments into rural areas can and do often alter the effective borders between LATAs. Many sources on LATA boundary information conflict with each other at detailed levels. Telcordia data may provide the most up-to-date details of LATA inclusions.
476 Birmingham
477 Huntsville
478 Montgomery
Includes Georgetown, Georgia
480 Mobile
Includes areas of Mississippi north of Pascagoula
Includes parts of northern Escambia County, Florida in the Century and Walnut Hill areas
832
666 Phoenix
Includes Winterhaven, California
Includes Spirit Mountain, Nevada
Includes Glen Canyon, Utah
668 Tucson
Includes Rodeo and Virden, New Mexico
980 Navajo Nation (Arizona portion)
Includes Shiprock, New Mexico
526 Fort Smith
Includes part of Oklahoma from Pocola to Moffett
Includes section of Oklahoma from Colcord to Watts
Includes Colcord, Missouri
Includes area of Oklahoma near Maysville, Arkansas
Includes area of Oklahoma near Uniontown, Arkansas
528 Little Rock
Includes Blytheville, Missouri
Includes New Home, Oklahoma
530 Pine Bluff
Includes parts of Louisiana around Dodge City and Junction City, Arkansas
722 San Francisco
724 Chico
726 Sacramento
728 Fresno
730 Los Angeles
Includes La Paz County, Arizona
732 San Diego
734 Bakersfield
736 Monterey
738 Stockton
740 San Luis Obispo
973 Palm Springs
656 Denver
Extends into Nebraska near Peetz and Julesburg, Colorado
658 Colorado Springs
920
228
236
Includes the west portion of the West Bay of Maryland, as far north as Damascus, Maryland (roughly Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles, and St. Mary's counties of Maryland)
Includes the northeasternmost portion of Virginia, from Sterling to just north of Fredericksburg (roughly Northern Virginia)
448 Pensacola
Includes Clear Springs, Wing and Florala, Alabama
450 Panama City
Includes a small portion of Georgia near Tallahassee
452 Jacksonville
454 Gainesville
456 Daytona Beach
458 Orlando
460 Southeast Florida
939 Fort Myers
952 Tampa
953 Tallahassee
Florida is a special case in which state regulators have also assigned 5-digit LATA codes which overlay the Federally-assigned 3-digit LATAs. See map on the right for details. Some carriers may refer to these by the 3-digit LATA, others by the 5-digit.
438 Atlanta
Includes portion of Alabama from Oakland to Huguley
Includes Phenix City, Alabama
Includes Ranburne, Alabama
440 Savannah
Includes part of southern South Carolina as far north as Hardeeville and Hilton Head Island
442 Augusta
Includes Aiken County and Edgefield County, South Carolina
444 Albany
446 Macon
834
652 Southern Idaho
Includes Malheur County, Oregon, especially the Ontario area
Includes Jackpot, Jarbidge, and Owyhee, Nevada
Includes Alta and Border, Wyoming
960 Coeur d'Alene
Includes part of northwest Montana as far east as Eureka and as far south as Libby
Includes Pullman, Washington and surrounding area
Includes Pend Oreille County, Washington
358 Chicago
Includes Lake County and Newton County, Indiana, especially the Gary, Indiana area
Includes Demotte, Hebron, and Lakes of the Four Seasons, Indiana
Extends into Wisconsin Salem Township
360 Rockford
Extends into Wisconsin near Apple River, Illinois
362 Cairo
364 Sterling
366 Forrest
368 Peoria
370 Champaign
May include areas of Indiana near Danville, Illinois
374 Springfield
376 Quincy
976 Mattoon
977 Macomb
978 Olney
330 Evansville
332 South Bend
334 Auburn-Huntington
336 Indianapolis
Extends into Illinois near Dana, Indiana
338 Bloomington
937 Richmond
Includes Union City, Ohio
938 Terre Haute
Includes Edgar and Clark counties of Illinois
May include Robinson, Illinois
630 Sioux City
Extends into Minnesota near incorporated areas of Iowa along its length
Includes the eastern portions of Dakota and Thurston counties of Nebraska
Includes North Sioux City, South Dakota, and extends into South Dakota near Akron and Hawarden, Iowa
632 Des Moines
Extends into Missouri from Andover, Missouri to south of Davis City, Iowa
634 Davenport
Includes portion of Illinois as far as Geneseo and Aledo
Includes the Galena, Illinois area
635 Cedar Rapids
524 Kansas City, KS (See Missouri for details)
532 Wichita
534 Topeka
462 Louisville
Includes the central southern area of Indiana around Salem
464 Owensboro
466 Winchester
492 Baton Rouge
486 Shreveport
488 Lafayette
490 New Orleans
Maine
120
Maryland
236 see Washington, D.C.; most of this LATA is actually in Maryland
238 Baltimore
240 Hagerstown
Includes the easternmost part of West Virginia around Martinsburg as far as Route 9
Includes the northwestern part of the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia including Keyser, from Grant County to Short Gap
Includes area of Pennsylvania just north of Hancock, Maryland
242 Salisbury
126 Western Massachusetts
128 Eastern Massachusetts
340 Detroit
342 Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Includes portion of Wisconsin around Iron Mountain, Michigan as far as Rhinelander and Townsend, Wisconsin
344 Saginaw
346 Lansing
348 Grand Rapids
620 Rochester
624 Duluth
626 St. Cloud
628 Minneapolis
636 Brainerd, Minnesota-Fargo, North Dakota
482 Jackson
Includes parts of Alabama around Columbus, Mississippi
484 Biloxi
520 St. Louis
Includes part of south-central Illinois southwest of Springfield.
521 Westphalia (per locallingguide.com, includes Columbia MO)
522 Springfield
524 Kansas City
Includes eastern portion of Kansas as far out as U.S. 73 and U.S. 59 and south as far as U.S. 54
521 Central Missouri: Columbia and surrounding areas
648 Great Falls
650 Billings
963 Kalispell (historical)
note: LATA 963 appears on many LATA lists, and at least one map, but is no longer a separate LATA-equivalent area. It is now part of LATA 648.
644 Omaha
646 Grand Island
958 Lincoln
720 Reno
May include Alpine, Verdi and Coleville, California
721 Pahrump
122
Includes part of Vermont around Groton
Includes part of Maine around Kittery and Wilsons Mills
220 Atlantic Coastal New Jersey
222 Delaware Valley
224 North Jersey
664
132 New York City and surrounding metropolitan area
Includes Greenwich, Connecticut
133 Poughkeepsie
Includes Milford, Pennsylvania and surrounding area
134 Albany
Includes Hancock, Massachusetts
136 Syracuse
138 Binghamton
Includes Sayre, Pennsylvania and surrounding area
140 Buffalo
Includes Ulysses, Pennsylvania and surrounding area
921 Fishers Island
974 Rochester
420 Asheville
422 Charlotte
Includes York County and Lancaster County, South Carolina
424 Greensboro-Winston-Salem area
426 Raleigh
428 Wilmington
949 Fayetteville
951 Rocky Mount
636 Brainerd, Minnesota-Fargo, North Dakota
638 Bismarck
Includes portions of Montana near Beach and Squaw Gap, North Dakota
320 Cleveland
322 Youngstown
324 Columbus
325 Akron
326 Toledo
328 Dayton
922 Cincinnati
Includes Rising Sun, Indiana and surrounding area
Includes the northern tip of Kentucky as far south as Williamstown
923 Lima-Mansfield
536 Oklahoma City
538 Tulsa
670 Eugene
672 Portland
Includes Southwestern Washington from Willapa Bay to Goldendale
226 Harrisburg
228 Philadelphia
230 Altoona
232 Northeast Pennsylvania
234 Pittsburgh
924 Erie
Rhode Island
130 Rhode Island
430 Greenville
Includes Polk County, North Carolina
432 Florence
434 Columbia
436 Charleston
640
468 Memphis
Includes part of Mississippi from south of Memphis to as far south as Hernando
470 Nashville
472 Chattanooga
Includes northwestern tip of Georgia
474 Knoxville
956 Bristol-Johnson County
Includes part of Virginia from Abingdon to Wytheville
540 El Paso
542 Midland
544 Lubbock
546 Amarillo
Includes the southern half of the Oklahoma Panhandle
548 Wichita Falls
550 Abilene
552 Dallas
554 Longview
Includes Miller County, Arkansas
556 Waco
558 Austin
560 Houston
562 Beaumont
564 Corpus Christi
566 San Antonio
568 Brownsville
570 Hearne
961 San Angelo
660 Utah
May include Mesquite and Partoun, Nevada
May include Fredonia and Colorado City, Arizona
981 Navajo Nation (Utah portion)
124 Vermont
Includes West Lebanon and West Chesterfield, New Hampshire
236 Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, and Stafford counties, and enclosed cities. See Washington, D.C.
244 Roanoke
246 Culpeper
248 Richmond
250 Lynchburg
252 Norfolk
927 Harrisonburg
928 Charlottesville
929 Edinburg
674 Seattle
676 Spokane
Includes parts of Oregon including Milton-Freewater and Troy
Includes a section of Idaho from Lewiston to Grangeville, up to Troy, and possibly Elk City
May include Tensed, Idaho
254 Charleston
Includes part of Virginia east of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
256 Clarksburg
932 Bluefield
Includes a strip of Virginia from south of Bluefield to the Kentucky border
350 Northeast Wisconsin
Includes the southern corner of Michigan's Upper Peninsula
352 Northwest Wisconsin
354 Southwest Wisconsin
356 Southeast Wisconsin
654
American Samoa - 884
Guam - 871
Northern Mariana Islands - 870
Puerto Rico - 820
U.S. Virgin Islands - 822
Wake Island - 836
Mexico - 838
Bahamas - 824
Jamaica - 826
Dominican Republic - 828
Other Caribbean - 830
Canada - 888
As LATAs exist for US regulatory purposes, where they serve as a demarcation between intra-LATA calls (handled by regional Bell operating companies) and inter-LATA calls (handled by interstate long distance carriers such as AT&T), they have no legal significance in Canada.
As of 2000, all of Canada (except for non-geographic numbers) is identified as LATA 888.
The use of this LATA set to identify individual provinces is therefore deprecated:
Alberta - 881, 884
British Columbia - 886
Manitoba - 888
New Brunswick - 890
Newfoundland - 885
Nova Scotia/P.E.I. - 887, 889
Ontario - 851
Quebec - 850, 883
Saskatchewan - 891
Yukon Territory - 892
Canada does define local interconnection regions (LIR's), which determine where points of interconnection (POI) must be provided by competing local exchange and mobile carriers to provide local number portability. A Canadian LIR is geographically smaller than a US LATA, typically comparable in size to a small city's flat-rate local calling area or to an entire large regional municipality. In areas where a small-city Digital Multiplex System controls a group of remote switching centres, one for each surrounding village, the local interconnect region normally includes each exchange in the city plus all downstream remotes of those exchanges. In a Toronto-sized city, the LIR will include only the city itself.
While the LIRs resemble local calling areas in geographic size, there are some key differences:
LIR's normally do not include incumbent local independent telephone company exchanges in locations not opened to competition, where the independent numbers are currently not portable.
LIR's do not cross provincial boundaries. Lloydminster has an LIR for each province, as does Ottawa-Hull.
LIR's closely follow network topology, which often does not match a local flat-rate calling area as local calling is defined by arbitrary regulatory constructs.
One example: The tiny unincorporated village of Beebe Plain, divided by the Quebec-Vermont border, is served by +1-819-876 Rock Island, Quebec, Canada (a remote station controlled from Magog) and +1-802-873 Derby Line, Vermont, USA (a remote station controlled from St. Johnsbury). Magog and St. Johnsbury are both a long-distance call from anywhere in Beebe Plain, even though Canadian subscribers can place local calls to Sherbrooke, US subscribers can locally call Newport and an international call within the village is local. An LIR assignment which follows network topology places the Canadian remote station in Magog's LIR, not Sherbrooke's LIR.
