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.