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Common Language Location Identification

identifier used in the telecommunications industry in North America

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 17, 2025
Entity authorityQ5012772
Source-derived summary

Common Language Location Identification (CLLI) is an application of Common Language Information Services in the North American telecommunications industry. It specifies the location and function of telecommunication equipment or of a relevant location such as an international border or a supporting equipment location, such as a manhole or pole. CLLI was developed in the 1960s in the Bell System, and continued use after divestiture in the North American market under management by Bellcore, later renamed to Telcordia and Iconectiv, which claims trademarks on the names "Common Language" and "CLLI".

CLLI codes are useful to telecommunications companies for ordering telephone service, for the rating of call detail records for billing purposes, and to assist in tracing calls. CLLI codes are associated with Vertical and Horizontal coordinates (frequently abbreviated to "V and H coordinates"), which were developed by AT&T researcher Jay K. Donald to provide a relatively simple method of calculating distance between two network locations. Various mileage-sensitive services are priced according to the V and H coordinates associated with the two endpoints' CLLI codes.

Structure

The first six characters of a CLLI code represent the place the code refers to and contain two code elements:

Four characters to denote the geographical area and the geographical area type (for example, city, town, and borough), known as the Geographical code element.

Two characters to denote the state, province, or country, known as the Geopolitical code element. The codes HS (high seas) and EO (earth orbit) are reserved for ships at sea and satellites, respectively.

For the various code formats, the remaining two or five characters contain one of:

A two-character building identifier, either two letters or two numbers, for telephone company buildings.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Common Language Location Identification” as identifier used in the telecommunications industry in North America. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 279-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Common, Language and Location can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as identifier used in the telecommunications industry in North America. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5012772. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Common Language Location Identification”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Common Language Location Identification primary sources, Common Language Location Identification archive and Common research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Common Language Location Identification”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Common Language Location Identification” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.