Identity
One market, one governed family identity.
Every governed Area Code belongs to one market family. Single-code markets remain singletons; qualifying overlay relationships are represented as one market family.
The system
The NDS Area Code Market System™
A standardized market geography built from the telephone geography people already recognize.
The NDS Area Code Market System™ is National Data System's governed analytical framework for organizing public telephone Area Codes, overlay relationships, ZIP Codes and cities into standardized market families.
Crosswalk
Market geography becomes reusable.
ZIP and city relationships connect other NDS datasets to the same market-family identity without changing the source geography.
Versioning
A standard that can evolve.
NDS can issue dated editions when Area Codes, overlays, crosswalk evidence or governance rules change, while preserving prior releases for reproducibility.
What NDS claims—and what it does not.
| NDS does | NDS does not |
|---|---|
| Create and govern the NDS analytical market-family framework, IDs, crosswalks, publications, definitions and branded data products. | Claim ownership of public telephone Area Codes, NANP numbering resources, cities, ZIP Codes or governmental boundaries. |
| Publish NDS Area Code Market definitions and derived intelligence. | Represent NDS market families as legal, regulatory or carrier-service boundaries. |
™ denotes marks claimed by National Data System. Trademark registration status is a separate legal matter.