Local Access and Transport Area — LATA
Was ist Local Access and Transport Area?
Dieser Eintrag liegt derzeit nur auf Englisch vor.
A LATA (Local Access and Transport Area) is one of roughly 200 geographic regions in the United States, drawn by the 1982 breakup of the Bell System to mark the boundary between local and long-distance telephone service. Calls inside a LATA are carried by local exchange carriers; calls that cross a LATA boundary historically moved to an interexchange (long-distance) carrier. The carve-outs survive today in tariff filings, intercarrier-compensation records, and numbering data.
More detail
The LATA boundaries were never drawn to match state lines or area codes. A single state holds several LATAs — California alone has eleven — and one area code can span more than one LATA, so an area code is a poor proxy for intra-LATA versus inter-LATA routing. Numbering data instead keys on the LATA code: a three- to five-digit identifier of the region that appears in the numbering-plan and switching records a carrier consults when it decides whether a call is local or inter-LATA.
The distinction matters on a CPaaS or wholesale-carrier form because the local/inter-LATA split still shapes pricing and routing tables. Tariffed rates for a route often differ inside versus across a LATA boundary, intercarrier-compensation records tag traffic as intra-LATA or inter-LATA, and some E.164 routing lookups return the LATA code alongside the carrier of record. A business porting a US number sees the same geography on its carrier paperwork, since the port travels between carriers that may route the traffic under different LATA rules.
For a Devotel Orbit tenant the LATA stays a data point, not a routing decision the tenant manages. The Devotel wholesale softswitch terminates the tenant's outbound US traffic over wholesale routes whose pricing already reflects the LATA geography, and the tenant's imported DIDs arrive with a carrier-of-record registration read through standard carrier lookups. The glossary term exists so the unfamiliar tag on a porting form or a carrier lookup — 'LATA 230', 'intra-LATA traffic' — resolves to a real concept instead of an acronym.
Häufige Fragen
- What is a LATA?
- A LATA (Local Access and Transport Area) is one of roughly 200 geographic regions in the United States drawn by the 1982 Bell System divestiture. It marks the boundary between local service (inside the LATA, carried by a local exchange carrier) and long-distance service (across a LATA boundary, historically routed to an interexchange carrier).
- How many LATAs are there in the United States?
- Roughly 200. The count shifts with mergers and consolidations, but the 1982 divestiture drew just under 200 regions and the numbering system still keys on them. A single state can hold several — California has eleven.
- Is a LATA the same as an area code?
- No. Area codes (NPAs) and LATAs are two different maps: one area code can span multiple LATAs, and one LATA can contain multiple area codes. Numbering and routing data keys on the LATA code, not the area code, when a carrier decides whether traffic is local or inter-LATA.
- Why does a CPaaS buyer still see LATA on carrier paperwork?
- Because the maps survive in the billing and routing records. Tariffed rates can differ inside versus across a LATA boundary, intercarrier-compensation filings tag traffic as intra-LATA or inter-LATA, and some E.164 routing lookups return the LATA code with the carrier of record — so the term shows up on porting forms, carrier lookups, and wholesale-routing tables.
See also
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