No. Within a region. Normally area codes are a region. Sometimes entire country codes are a region in this sense. Depends on the size of the region/country though. In some cases there is even more than one area code for the same region.

LATA's are geographic areas and NPX(prefix) are switching areas within the LATA(Local Access and Transport Area). The geo regions(LATA) are set up to differentiate local and long distance inside the US. There's a three level hiearchy within each LATA, and there are three levels in the United States as defined by the regulators, post divestiture. I'd have to say your definition may be accurate outside the US, but not inside. [ SNIP ]

The telco peering points is just a technicality. It's there just for optimization. Most regulators have set up an "easy interconnection" policy to prevent your favorite incumbant from offering 'peering' only on lands end.

They're more than a technicality. They are required by the regulator. There are commodity markets related to IXC minutes exchange as well. This helps to keep LD cheap (as it can be) and reliable as if one carrier is unable to carry minutes, others can. The basic telco archictecture in the USA is EO, TO, and AT. In the case of LD, it's EO, TO, to a POP, and IXC. EO, TO and AT are all interconnected some symetrically, some asymetrically, with the exception of the IXC which is all symetric. Personally, this is a very interesting thread to me, but I think this is starting to go way off topic for NANOG. -M<