For each country, e.164 number groups – known as number ranges – are assigned to licensed telecommunications providers.
XConnect’s Number Range service provides information about the service provider allocation and intended purpose of any E.164 number. An E.164 number is up to 15 digits in length (3 digits maximum for the country code and 12 digits maximum for the subscriber’s number).
In theory, there can be one trillion numbers per country. However, in practice it is less, as groups of numbers are reserved for different purposes and service providers, hence large swathes of these ranges are unallocated.
Understanding to whom and for what purpose a number range is allocated is vital in most telecommunications applications, aids telecommunications fraud detection and underpins number validation solutions.
Fraud management for voice routing
Enable real-time detection and blocking of high cost B numbers using unallocated and ‘known high costs’ range intelligence.
Migrate away from prefix routing and remove unnecessar traffic from routing and billing systems, using simple number range validation.
Effectively manage orgin- and destination-based rating using A and B number range intelligence.
XConnect has a dedicated team of number information experts that have created proprietary techniques to ingest data from Telecommunications Authorities, the (International Telecoms Union) ITU and IR.21 data sources. XConnect’s Operations team then uses information from its own voice network and global number portability operations to verify, test and investigate identified data issues.
Access to XConnect’s Global Number Range (GNR) service can be achieved through a query interface that returns attributes associated with the range of a given number (available via webservices or enum interfaces, or through a download of the XConnect number range database).
Most number range services rely only on aggregating international number plans. However, the truth is that this alone has many significant limitations. Any reliable number range solution must overcome the lack of international standardisation, the volume of updates and the ongoing verification of data.
In 2019, XConnect developed a new number range service called Global Number Range (GNR) because many existing solutions had poor data quality, limited attribute information and no data verification.
Any number range service requires a multi-stage process that ingests national regulator data sources, supplements this data with information shared by service providers and positively verifies this data through processing communications records.
XConnect’s GNR executes this multi-stage process and provides access through a simple real-time query interface or as a data download for high volume applications.
Access information about country coverage and APIs
Get answers to questions you may have
We’re all aware that in the fight against fraud, two-factor authentication (2FA) is a key tool in the armoury…but it has to offer enhanced security without comprising on user experience.
Reinforcing its commitment to information security, XConnect is delighted to announce that, following an external audit, it has re-attained ISO27001:2013 certification.
One CPaaS provider was looking for a way to increase satisfaction across its customer and partner base, from application developers within enterprises through to end users, and approached XConnect to see how enhancing its number intelligence could help.
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Email: info@xconnect.net
