Carrier Identification Code — CIC
Qué es Carrier Identification Code?
Esta entrada está disponible actualmente solo en inglés.
A Carrier Identification Code (CIC) is a numeric identifier — four digits in North America — that names a specific long-distance (interexchange) carrier. A US or Canadian telephone subscriber uses it to designate which carrier handles their long-distance calls: the code appears in carrier-selection records, on the PIC field of a switching system, and in the CAS (Carrier Access Service) a business files when it wants its long-distance routed through a specific carrier rather than the local company's default.
More detail
CICs are administered alongside the other carrier codes a CPaaS buyer encounters on a numbering or porting form: the OCN (Operating Company Number), which identifies the carrier of record for the number itself, and the ACNA (Access Customer Name Abbreviation), which identifies a company on the access-service side. The CIC is the long-distance half of that map — it names the interexchange carrier a line's +1 (inter-LATA) traffic is pre-subscribed to, which is why it appears on a PIC/CICS (Primary Interexchange Carrier / Carrier Identification Code Selection) transaction rather than on the port of the number itself.
The code matters to a CPaaS or wholesale-voice platform because every carrier-selection decision still has a billing and routing consequence. An outbound route's pricing and quality differ by interexchange carrier, an incorrectly assigned CIC on a US line sends the line's +1 traffic to the wrong long-distance network, and a ported number that keeps its old PIC can end up rating calls through a carrier it no longer holds. Number-management data accordingly carries the CIC or PIC alongside the LATA and the carrier of record.
For a Devotel Orbit tenant the CIC stays a carrier-side data point rather than a routing knob the tenant turns. The Devotel wholesale softswitch terminates the tenant's outbound US voice traffic over wholesale routes whose carrier selection is already resolved, so the tenant never files a PIC transaction directly; the code surfaces on carrier paperwork — a porting attachment, a carrier lookup on an imported DID — where the glossary term gives the unfamiliar three-to-four-digit tag a real definition.
Preguntas frecuentes
- What is a Carrier Identification Code (CIC)?
- A Carrier Identification Code (CIC) is a numeric identifier — four digits in North America — that names a long-distance (interexchange) carrier. It records which carrier a telephone line is pre-subscribed to for its +1 (inter-LATA) traffic, appearing in PIC/CICS carrier-selection records filed with the local carrier.
- How is a CIC different from an OCN?
- An OCN (Operating Company Number) identifies the carrier of record for the number itself — the carrier that holds the number and can port it. A CIC identifies the long-distance (interexchange) carrier the line is pre-subscribed to for +1 traffic. A ported number changes OCN; its CIC may stay the same or change independently depending on the gaining carrier's PIC arrangement.
- Why does a CIC matter on a porting or numbering form?
- Because it decides which long-distance carrier a line's +1 calls route to, and mis-assignment has billing consequences. A ported number that keeps its old PIC can rate calls through a carrier the subscriber no longer contracts with, and an incorrectly assigned CIC on a US line sends the whole line's long-distance traffic to the wrong network.
- Is a CIC the same as a PIC?
- The CIC is the code; a PIC (Primary Interexchange Carrier) designation is the carrier-selection transaction that assigns a CIC to a line. Filing PIC change paperwork is how a subscriber switches a line's CIC to a different long-distance carrier.
See also
Build it on Orbit
Voice, messaging, email, video, and AI agents on one platform and one pay-as-you-go bill. Start free — no credit card required.